Brian & Angela Anderson Family

2011 Family Photo Shoot

2011-12-12T23:23:00.009-07:00

Brian's sister Marci was willing to take our family photos this year. We decided to try something different for us that we thought our boys would enjoy - taking photos on train tracks. It took many shots to get some good ones, but Marci came through for us. Here we give the best ones...
Brian & Angela Anderson Family

Brian & Angela

Travis, Lucas, & Marcus

Travis

Lucas

Marcus

Santa and His Helicopter

2011-12-11T16:59:00.002-07:00

As we did 2 years ago, we went to the mall on Black Friday to wait for Santa to arrive in a helicopter. He comes to visit the mall and shake the kids' hands. We had to wait nearly an hour before he arrived but the kids enjoyed the opportunity. Here's Angela and her three boys waiting.

Here's a composite video of his arrival. It was very exciting and a bit scary when the wind from the helicopter blew right at us (you can hear it in the video). Travis gave Santa his Christmas list. Marcus got scared by Santa and ran to Angela.

Sound Study of BYU Football

2011-12-11T16:48:00.002-07:00

Brian's fellow physics faculty member who studies acoustics was asked by BYU to do a study of the sound from the PA system during two games. The goal was to see what the effect on the neighborhoods north of the stadium would be if they put the PA system in the south end zone facing north (it's opposite right now). So with the help of a number of students and a few faculty we enjoyed two games on the 10 yard line sidelines. Here's Brian holding up the cheer leader sign.

Later in the game we got a small group shot with Cosmo. Brian asked for the photo op.

First Snow to Play In for Winter

2011-12-11T16:43:00.002-07:00

A week before Thanksgiving we had our first snow that allowed the kids to play in for this winter. They went out excited but it didn't end up quite as fun as they had remembered. Cold hands and toes changed their mind.

And then there was also the mud thing...
Here's a better idea of what the mud was like when you attempt to sled down dirt mounds.

Don't Feed the Animals

2011-12-11T16:39:00.002-07:00

Carrying on the long line of tradition, we eat lots of ice cream at our house. It comes through Brian's paternal line. Grandpa Norvel always had more ice cream than you could eat. On this ice cream eating occasion at the Anderson house, we found out that the 4th generation of this tradition screams when fed ice cream!

Halloween 2011

2011-11-06T22:26:00.002-07:00

This Halloween was quite fun. Our kids had lots of ideas of what they wanted to be, however it kept changing by the day. Finally a few days before Halloween we got each one to choose something. Travis decided on being a Lego man. So Brian made a costume for him. He made a box be more trapezoid shaped and then taped a bucket on the top of it. He cut out holes for the arms, head, and body in the box and cut out eyes and mouth holes. In photo below you can't see him well since he wasn't looking forward. Lucas wanted to be Thomas the Train and that was easy. Funny expression on his face below (click on the photo to see it bigger). Marcus was the only one consistently saying for a month that he wanted to be a robot. We don't know where he got that idea from. So Brian made a robot costume out of a box for him. Here they are at Grandma Graff's home (Angela's grandmother).

And here they are before setting out for the candy. Brian took them out and Angela stayed home to hand out the candy.

Here they are out on the candy trail. Travis ducked his head out of view. The face holes weren't perfect for him (as far as matching his height, etc.), but they weren't that bad. Marcus had fallen down face first in his robot costume at the second house of the night and from then on refused to wear it. So Angela came out to bring us a fireman coat for him to wear instead. You gotta love how Lucas is wearing his cap! Brian brought the wagon along to carry coats until they could put them on when it got cold. It was also handy to bring them home at the end. Brian had them out for 2 hours.

Travis Playing Basketball

2011-11-06T22:04:00.002-07:00

Travis has been talking for some time about wanting to play basketball. We signed him up for a city team. It's funny to watch these games. Everybody double dribbles, there's traveling all over the place, no stealing is allowed, no backcourt defense is allowed, and you get assigned to defend one opponent on the other team. Travis is funny when he defends. He's always in the other kids face. On offense Travis stays in front of the defender and sometimes pushes the kid to accomplish this. His shot making ability has been improving over the course of the season. During his final game recently he scored 4 baskets. Here's a video of one of them from fairly far away.

Interviews with Kids

2011-11-06T21:12:00.002-07:00

We saw on one of our friends' blogs (Alex and Julia Baker) that they interview their kids annually and ask them various questions on camera. We thought that was a cool idea so one family home evening we did it. You might wonder if we sugared them up before these interviews, but no, this is their versions of sitting still. First up is Marcus.

Lucas really doesn't know what sitting still means.

Travis did well and amazingly bore testimony at the end with no prompting, the first time Brian had heard him say things like that.

Marcus Driving and Brian Teaching

2011-11-06T20:53:00.002-07:00

We have a power wheels jeep that we got for free while in New Mexico and it barely works still. We haven't got it out in a while. We gave Marcus a turn to drive it by himself (well almost by himself). Here's the video of his driving experience that ends in a small crash (he's still learning to steer).

Brian has been teaching Physical Science 100 at BYU this fall. He enjoys the material quite a bit and especially doing demos for the students. In the video below, Brian sets off a thermite reaction, this is hot enough to burn through steel. One of his students sent him the video.

Last cabin trip of 2011?

2011-11-06T20:46:00.002-07:00

Angela took all three boys up to the cabin perhaps for the last time this year before winter. Unfortunately many of the leaves had already fallen but it was still pretty up there. Here's Travis posing.

And Marcus...

And finally Lucas too. They each had a large bag and were going around collecting leaves, one of Lucas' favorite things to do (collecting things from outside, especially bugs like rollie pollies and praying mantises).

Here's the van and the cabin.

BYU Homecoming Game

2011-11-06T20:37:00.002-07:00

Brian took Travis and Lucas to the BYU Homecoming football game. His sister Stacy and her family got tickets with them too. Brian's aunt Lahna from Boise came over to see us at our seats at one point. In the front row, L to R, it's Brian, Travis, Lahna, Stacy, and in the row behind them, L to R, it's Garrin, Audrey, and Jacoby. Wesley and Lucas were playing at on the railings.

Here's Brian and the boys just before they left the game. The game started at 7 pm so it was a late night for the boys. They stayed till midway through the 4th quarter before leaving.

Enjoying Our Kids

2011-09-30T21:35:00.003-06:00

Our kids have been making us laugh and making us proud lately. Here's some highlights.

One morning before Travis went to school, he and Marcus got singing a Veggie Tales song called "Keep Walking". It's about the Israelites when they marched around the walls of Jericho to make them fall down. The song is supposedly what the Jericho guards might have sang to the Israelites to taunt them. Marcus loves this song. Then the next song they sing is Scripture Power, which is Marcus' favorite. He likes to sing "Scripture Power, Win!" Here's a video of their songs.

One Saturday morning, Travis woke up and came downstairs and just decided to start doing chores. He emptied the dishwasher and then started cleaning the bathroom. Travis later told us that he felt the spirit tell him to do his chores.
A couple weeks ago Lucas had a lucky opportunity to score a goal in his soccer game. The ball just happened to pop out in his direction right in front of the goal and he scored. The next week, something really changed in him and he has become an aggressive player. He scored TWO goals in his next game. We couldn't believe it! We happened to get video of the very ending of the 2nd goal. He had dribbled it all the way to the goal on his own and scored both times. I love the great display of sportsmanship by the girl on the other team. You can tell from the video below that Lucas' parents were quite excited about Lucas' goals.

Homemade Funnel Cakes

2011-09-11T21:58:00.002-06:00

Ever since that funnel cake that Brian, Travis, and Lucas had at the demolition derby, Brian has been wanting to make them himself (save on the high price of $4/each). Tonight he made them using this recipe http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,166,132188-247199,00.html Here's Travis and Lucas sharing one of them. We did powdered sugar on them but people often add strawberry sauce or cinnamon/sugar.

Marcus enjoyed them too, but not as much as the older two.

Brian used his electric skillet and 3 cups of canola oil to fry them. It's fairly easy, give it a try! Here's one being cooked.

Pippin Family Cabin Reunion

2011-09-11T21:46:00.002-06:00

Another Pippin family reunion at the family cabin on Labor Day weekend. This time we spent the days up there but slept at home most nights (though Angela and the older boys slept in our tent outside one night, as Brian wasn't feeling great that weekend). Here's Brian, Travis, and Marcus on a three wheeler. Our boys sure love to ride on those.

One night we played pictionary with all the kids. You can see Marcus with the green shirt and Angela with a green shirt on. Lucas is wearing blue to the right of Angela. Not sure what Travis was doing at the time.

Here's many of the cousins doing one of the many activities that Angela planned for them to do. Notice how only our two boys, Travis and Lucas, are the ones not looking.

The younger cousins liked to play together and the older ones played together. Marcus is riding a fire truck in this picture and Lucas is running in the middle of the frame.

On the last day our boys got really into collecting grasshoppers and putting them in a large plastic jar. Here's Travis with his latest victim. They must have caught 20-30 of them. Travis then took the jar to school to show his class and then they all died a day later.

Lucas got to ride a three wheeler with Grandpa one time and he enjoyed it.

And here's video of Brian with Marcus and Travis on a three wheeler ride.

Happy Birthday Brian

2011-09-11T21:16:00.002-06:00

For Brian's birthday we gave him a meat smoker. It uses charcoal and scented wood chips to indirectly cook the meat. It takes longer than BBQ but the meat is moist and very flavorful.

Stacy, Brian's oldest sister, was in town for his birthday since she was bringing her daughter Ashley (Brian's niece) up to start at BYU. Marci, Brian's youngest sister also came over. Here's some video of the people at Brian's party.

FHE Activity - Floating Boats at BYU

2011-09-11T20:52:00.002-06:00

For a family home evening activity one Monday night we made wax paper protected paper boats and floated them on the newly remodeled stream on the southwest end of BYU campus. It's a beautiful area and fun to walk along.

They have a few waterfall features too. Here's Travis and Lucas at the top of one of them.

Lucas' boat (yellow, L's favorite color) got caught in a whirlpool and Marcus' boat (green, M's favorite color) got a chance to catch up a bit.

And here's some video of the exciting boat race. Travis had to be in the lead and may have cheated in the process but we all had a good fun time.

Demolition Derby in Spanish Fork

2011-09-11T20:42:00.002-06:00

We got tickets for Brian to take Travis and Lucas out to see a demolition derby in Spanish Fork. It was quite loud but very exciting to watch the cars smash each other. There's all kinds of special rules for the derby, like that you can't hit a driver side door, etc. We saw two cars get rolled over (one in the video below). It was a late night but we had some fun.

We didn't stay until the end because we had seen at least an hour of it and it was late. So we left to beat the crowds and ended up buying a funnel cake (our boys first one). Lucas said "Dad this is my favorite part of the night" (eating the funnel cake).

Below is the video of the derby. You can see a car get rolled over. Then Brian videoed the boys and got a funny reaction from Lucas. Finally Brian made a video of Travis doing the chicken dance. Brian overheard nearby spectators say that Travis was pretty good at it. Many other kids in the area were watching him to learn it. Travis learned it at school.

Travis' Geocaching Day with Dad

2011-08-16T22:05:00.003-06:00

Before talking about the day of geocaching, here's a map of our 305 geocache finds since Dec. 2003 when we started geocaching. You can see our current count of cache finds in the upper right hand corner of our blog.

So Brian and Travis went out for a hike up a nearby canyon on Saturday morning to find many geocaches along the canyon trail. It was just over a mile hike, as the crow flies, uphill for the first portion of the hike. Travis was a trooper and made it without much difficulty. There is a mountain stream that runs right alongside the trail and has a few nice waterfalls. Here's Brian and Travis taking a break on one of the nicer bridges along the trail.

Here's the popular waterfall along the hike, but only about 1/3rd the way that Brian and Travis hiked. See the video below for video of some boys scouts rappelling down this cliff aussie style.

Brian and Travis first hiked all the way up and took a break at the farthest geocache site then hiked down while finding others along the way. Here's Travis holding up the first one they found.

Here was their view of the valley as the hiked down the trail.

They had to cross over the river several times and most of these crossings didn't have much of a bridge other than what people had placed to allow a crossing. The water was moving quite fast so it was somewhat of a scary crossing for a 7 year old at times.

When we got to the main waterfall, Travis and Brian watched some boy scouts rappel down the cliff. Here's some video of them.

Another day in the mud!

2011-08-16T21:51:00.002-06:00

A few months ago we blogged about a day when our three boys got into the mud and gave us a "wonderful" opportunity to take photos of them. Well it happened again but this time instead of Marcus getting into the mix it was Lucas' good friend Heber who got to enjoy the mud bath. This time it wasn't enough that they got dirty, no the house had to get dirty as well. Here they are...

So here's a video of them getting caught in the act. Not sure what was going through Lucas' head during this video, it's like he froze with guilt or something. Travis on the other hand knew he was in trouble but enjoyed the moment anyway.

Instead of getting very angry, Brian decided to spray them down with the garden hose while they jumped on the trampoline. This lasted for a good 5 minutes. Travis and Lucas weren't so happy when Brian would hit them with a spray of water because it was cold. Heber, on the other hand, just couldn't seem to get enough of the shower spray because he actually was interested in getting clean again. They all did have a good time though in the end, once they had got sufficiently wet and the cold water was no longer so shocking to their systems. Brian took video for a second spray session but this one ended quickly.

Vacation in California

2011-08-16T21:27:00.005-06:00

As mentioned in our previous blog post we took a vacation to California to visit Brian's parents recently. Brian also had a job interview for a physics faculty position at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey. On the way to CA we split up the drive and stayed for $40 at Circus Circus in Reno. It was a fun experience for our kids. They liked the train that you ride between buildings and the carnival type games area. Here's Marcus and Travis enjoying the view out our 14th story room.

We did a bike/scooter ride with Brian's parents one day and the kids had a good time. Marcus didn't allow us to go very fast because he has recently been insistent that he ride a scooter as well. Let's just say he's not a speed racer yet.

There's a fun, large concrete slide at a park near their house that the kids ride on cardboard down and they really have fun.

During this time Brian was down in Monterey and so Marcus clung to Grandpa and made good friends with him.

Here's another fun slide nearby. It's a really long one (see the second video below). Note Marcus with Grandpa again.

Then Angela, the boys, Grandpa and Grandma, and Marci (who drove over and vacationed with us) met Brian down in Monterey for a half day. They had a really cool park in town with a roller slide. You might be catching on by now that the theme of our vacation seemed to center around slides. Here's Lucas and Marcus enjoying the roller slide.There's also a real train at this park in Monterey that the kids can climb on. Travis and Lucas sure enjoyed climbing on it.

The beaches there are generally cold and not so sandy for the most part but still very beautiful. Here's a family photo we had taken.

Brian took the boys out on the rocks a ways so that they could look at the tide pools and sea shells out there.

And here's a photo of Grandma and Grandpa with our boys. They sure had fun spending quality time with their grandparents.

That evening Grandma and Grandpa and Marci took our boys back home with them and Angela got to stay with Brian in Monterey for a night. It was a week shy of our 10th anniversary and we had honeymooned in Monterey 10 years ago. One of the restaurants that we had enjoyed back then is called the Fish Wife and it's out near the coast in Pacific Grove. We got to eat there again that night for dinner which was fun. Great great food! If you ever get a chance to eat there, do so!

Here's a picture of the "hotel" on campus where Brian stayed for his interview. This is a restored version of the original famous hotel in Monterey that really got things started for this area in terms of tourism. This was the fancy place for the rich and famous to go stay. It had burned down a couple times and been rebuilt. At some point the Navy bought this land and built the Postgraduate School here.

So here's video of the concrete slide.

Then the long metal slide...

And here's video of Marcus chasing the seagulls, quite cute.

The UT to CA Drive

2011-08-15T22:37:00.005-06:00

We drove to California for a vacation last week along with Marci and we decided to photograph the things that we always looked for as kids on this very same drive. The first thing we photographed was a UFO. You can barely see it in the photo below.

Here's the UFO zoomed in. Probably a blimp, but we couldn't exactly identify it and it was flying, so it's a UFO!
Then there's the "water" on the road that you often see driving through these desert freeways. It's actually an optical reflection of the sky at an angle past the critical angle if you want to know the physics explanation for it (the air near the ground has a lower index of refraction than the air a bit above the ground and a critical angle is reached near 90 degrees from normal incidence, therefore you see a reflection of the sky). Even with Brian's knowledge of physics, he just couldn't convince Travis and Lucas that it wasn't water though.

We decided to stop and smell the roses, err salt on the salt flats. It was incredibly bright, but fun to touch. Brian collected some salt in a bag.

On the way back to Utah was when we took most of the memories photos. Here's one of the first things to look for, the hundreds of windmills as you drive into Tracy, CA.

Then there's the ever present CA bushes that divide the freeway.

Donner Lake came third we know...

Then the crazy indian place at Imlay, NV. We'd never stopped here before but we did this time. What a crazy place! It's an official Nevada Historical Site now.

Check out all of the beer bottles that he used to make this place (click on the photo to see them better).

Then there's Wendover Will.

And the ball tree in Utah.

Couldn't pass up this fun photo of the setting sun's reflection off of the side mirror. Brian took this while driving without looking at the camera viewer, just by using the sun's illumination of the camera.

And here was a nice sunset over the great salt lake.

Now the video portion of the blog. Marcus did quite well on our drive. Here he is laughing about tunnels with Lucas.

Now an actual tunnel in NV that Marcus enjoyed.

And finally more video of Marcus talking about bridges and tunnels. So cute!

Happy 23!!! Birthday Angela

2011-08-14T20:35:00.004-06:00

Angela turned 32 in July. Brian was actually out of town at stake youth conference so she celebrated with her boys, Heather (who had driven up from Vegas that week), and Marci. Apparently the numbers looked right from Angela's perspective but from the camera's perspective she was getting younger, pretty funny. She wondered why neither Marci nor Heather caught the backwards numbers.

Marcus is Our Big 2 Year Old Now

2011-07-17T22:22:00.004-06:00

Marcus turned two on Friday. We asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday and he said "park." So we took him to the coolest park we knew of in the area up in Pleasant Grove. It's a cool science discovery themed park with tons to do. Here's Marcus swinging away. Shortly after this photo was taken he took a nasty tumble/flip on his head, but he recovered.

Here's the birthday boy up in one of the towers.

Aunt Marci, one of Marcus' favorite people, joined us. We had a Little Caesar's pizza dinner at the park (one of Marcus' favorite dinner foods).

Here's a decent view of the playground area, though you can't see even half of it in this photo, there's at least this much behind me in the photo.

Then we came home for cake and ice cream. Angela made him a train cake that he requested.

He seemed to be a natural at opening presents.

He was excited about each and every present he got, even the clothes!

Perhaps his favorite present was this ball his brothers game him that has some kind of smaller ball inside it and it makes a lot of noise when you bounce the ball. They're like $6 at Walmart. Mom and Dad gave him a sit and spin and a ride on firetruck (kid powered) that makes lots of sounds.

Kennecott Copper Mine

2011-07-17T22:14:00.003-06:00

This week was free admission week for the Kennecott Copper Mine so Angela took the boys to go see it. The boys enjoyed seeing all the work trucks that they enjoy reading about in stories.

Here's one of the really big wheels that apparently one of the vehicles uses.

We had the idea that it was more of an underground mining operation, like in a tunnel. Apparently they don't actively work in the tunnels right now. Most of the work is done in a huge pit. You can see a dump truck driving up the hill at the bottom of this photo. Kinda hard to get a scale size of this pit in your mind, but those dots are vehicles down at the bottom.

Marcus decided to get up close to the trucks and nearly got ran over by this one! Just kidding, it's just a poster in the background, but doesn't he just have a face that says "I laugh in the face of danger!"

Swimming Lessons for 4 of Us

2011-07-17T21:56:00.004-06:00

Angela and her three boys have been doing swimming lessons all at the same time recently. Angela and Marcus are doing a swim lesson together for Marcus' first swimming lesson. Marcus hasn't been one to enjoy the water up until now so this has been very helpful for him. One day Brian took the morning off from work so he could take some photos and see how they were doing. I guess Marcus kept yelling for his dad but he got through it.

Here's Marcus kicking away.

Lucas apparently wasn't helped by Dad's presence either. Brian took him to his lesson and he didn't want to get in the water with his class. Instead he just sat in the corner of the pool near his class for a while. Pretty sad... but what do you do in this situation? Rescue him? Give him incentives (Brian's approach that didn't work)? Threaten him? Or laugh? When bribery didn't work, Brian just had to laugh and document it with a picture.

Halfway through the lesson he warmed up a bit. Apparently his teachers said he didn't have problems normally. Just wanted more Dad attention or something.

Travis on the other hand, he was in his element. He's part fish with goggles. He really enjoys his swimming lessons.

Here's Travis floating on his back with his teacher nearby.

Squaw Peak Visit

2011-07-09T14:54:00.004-06:00

As an act of spontaneity we decided to get in the car a recent evening and drive up to the Squaw Peak viewing area. We had never been up there before. Here's the 4 boys of the family.

Travis took this photo of us.

And a family photo...

It was a pretty view from up there. You could see a lot of the valley. In this view you can see the temple and BYU campus.

Lucas and Marcus enjoyed climbing all over this rock. Marcus seemed to want to have his photo taken as he kept saying cheese.

The rays of sunlight peeking through the clouds were a cool sight to see too.

Here's another cheese from Marcus.

Happy 4th of July

2011-07-09T14:43:00.004-06:00

We had an enjoyable 4th of July. Brian's oldest sister Stacy and her family came to visit us. They were dropping their son off for EFY and then heading up to Idaho. Here's a bunch of us enjoying an evening together (with Lucas upside down).

Later that evening we went out to watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks from a park. Here's the kids enjoying time together (with Travis and Lucas torturing Ashley).

We took the opportunity to dress up festively on Sunday for church and have a family photo taken.

We had a really yummy dinner of BBQ food and various other goodies as well. We extended out our table to it's longest for this meal.

Monday morning Stacy's family left and that afternoon Amber's family came. Here's Travis and Lucas playing with Isobell and her pool.

Later we enjoyed some fireworks.

Marcus was brave enough to hold his own sparkler and enjoy it.

Later that night aunt Marci joined us for still some more fireworks.

Our boys really enjoy their aunt Marci.

Random Cute Photos

2011-07-09T09:47:00.002-06:00

Here's a typical lunchtime sight for our boys this summer.

Marcus is enjoying Dad's Elmo slippers

Lucas and Dad had a one on one evening and Lucas wanted to collect rocks. So they went to Rock Canyon and found a geocache while they looked for rocks. Afterwards they got shaved ice.

Here's Travis enjoying his little cousin Logan (Amber's baby).

The boys enjoy playing in the water outside on these hot days.

Marcus apparently enjoys watching his brothers enjoy the water on hot days.

One evening Lucas lined up a lot of hot wheels cars around the base of one of our chairs. He does things like this a lot lining up things in long lines.

Ah, brotherly love right?

Colorado Vacation

2011-07-08T22:18:00.004-06:00

Starting the Memorial Day weekend, we went to visit Angela's brother Alan's family in Colorado and then to her sister Adrienne's family in Colorado as well for a week long vacation. On the way there we had sunshine, then rain, then snow, then very dense fog. We must have seen it all. We arrived safely though. On the first day Adrienne's family came up to Alan's and we went to the Swetsville Zoo in Fort Colins. It's a sculpture garden of things made all out of old steel parts and welded together to be these really cool things. We visited this place once before when we lived in New Mexico. Here's a photo of one of Brian's favorite sculptures the two-headed dragon with most of the cousins. There's Marcus out in front and Travis in the back and then from L to R it's Abby, Eric, Christopher, Lucas, Preston, Ryan, and Carson.

Here's another interesting sculpture, this monster car. It was all we could do to get Travis to participate in a family photo. We had to let him choose something to pose in front of and this is what he picked.

Here's the cousins at lunch time with Marcus looking at the camera instead of eating.

The dads and the older kids then went out geocaching. From L to R on the bridge it's Carson, Eric, Ryan, Christopher, Abby, Preston, Lucas, and Travis.

Here's one of the caches that we found. The kids quickly swarmed around it to get first dibs on the toys in it. Lucas was sad that everyone got to it before him so he hung his head and didn't want to look in it (pretty sad).

From L to R on the fallen tree it's Eric, Abby, Christopher, Carson, Ryan, Preston, and Lucas. Don't quite know what Jason was doing in the background of this photo...

We also got a chance to ride on an old trolley line through Fort Collins. We enjoyed this slow ride to an ice cream shop.

We also got to do some good swimming. Here's Marcus and Dad enjoying the pool.

Here's the Anderson and Pippin hoodlums on the stairs. This time we got Spencer in the photo in the orange monkey shirt.

Then we headed down to Adrienne's. They have a cool park near their home with sand and running water to allow the kids to build water systems in the sand. Our boys really enjoyed it. Marcus had some issues with getting sand between his sandals and his feet but he eventually decided it was worth it.

See here he is. Looks like some yummy soup he's making.

During one of the nap times for the youngest Angela and Adrienne took the older ones to the fire station. Here's Eric, Lucas, Travis, and Christopher on the front of the truck (Abby was at school).

Now for the video portion of the blog post. First up we have video at the Swetsville Zoo. There was an area with musical instruments. Travis was able to sound the large horn. He's consistently able to play instruments with mouthpieces. Perhaps we need to get him a trumpet!

Next up some swimming fun.

Then here's some video of Lucas and Travis going down a whale water slide. Marcus even tried this a few times.

Finally we have video of Travis doing the bigger water slide. He's becoming a decent swimmer.

Emily's Wedding (Brian's Niece)

2011-07-08T08:38:00.002-06:00

On May 20th, Brian's oldest niece got married in Arizona. Brian flew down to see the wedding and the reception. Here's a silly picture as the family was trying to setup the decorations.

One of the cool decorations at the wedding was the flower vases that had live fish swimming in them.

Here's Brian and all his sisters (from L to R, Brian, Lisa, Stacy, and Marci).

The wedding kiss...

This was a cool photo Brian snapped of the bouquet toss.

Travis' Sports

2011-07-06T23:42:00.004-06:00

Travis wanted to play baseball again this year. Here's Travis playing 3rd base waiting for the game to start. He mostly enjoyed playing catcher so he could wear his helmet.

A swing and a miss. Love the effort shown on his face! Just a bit early on the swing.

Marcus wanted to try on Travis' helmet we picked up at a garage sale.

Here's Travis' team and two coaches. Travis is in front of the coach wearing blue (who is a friend from our days in Pennsylvania, Modoc was on Travis' team).

Not sure if Travis had more luck with this pitch or not but it sure looks like he has his eye on the ball.

Here's a pitch in the air from the coach.

Perhaps the best part of watching baseball at this age is the base running. They have no concept of base lines and the rules surrounding them. It's always entertaining to see the cat and mouse chase that ensues for plays at home plate. Travis didn't evade the catcher this time.

Here's Travis on 1st base at his last game. He led off the inning and went on to score in this inning.

Here's his speedy base running.

Travis also ran track after school two days a week. At the end of the year they had a meet and this video is of Travis doing the long jump. Looks like he got a favorable recorded mark.

School's Out for Summer!

2011-07-06T23:29:00.002-06:00

Travis finished 1st grade. His teacher was Ms. Ahlstrom and he really enjoyed having her as a teacher. He's not in his normal school uniform here since this was a free dress day.

Lucas completed his first preschool experience. Here's his graduation picture.

Here's a video of what his teacher had to say about Lucas at his graduation.

Marcus' Giggle

2011-05-15T23:33:00.002-06:00

Not much needs to be said here. Too cute of a laugh, you can tell he was tired.

Recent "Highlights"

2011-05-15T23:06:00.008-06:00

We thought it best to get back up to date on our blog through a series of random "highlights" over the past two months. This was a cute photo of Travis and Lucas after they had posted their American flag pole on a dirt mound behind our house. Looks like they just summitted Everest! Click on the photo to see their expressions better.

Lucas had a good time doing his first real sport, gymnastics. The day he got the medal provides a long and funny story, ask Angela sometime.
Here's Marcus about to go skiing.
Here's the boys enjoying their Easter helmets, err, buckets.

Easter bunny pancakes with chocolate chips (try chocolate chips in pancakes with syrup sometime, very yummy).
Here's one of our boys favorite things to do, make fruit shakes with Brian. Sometimes they use our orange juicer first and they love to put the orange slices in and press them down.

We have a duck that regularly visits our front yard at about 11-12 am every day. We often go out to feed her some bread. We assume she has eggs somewhere in the neighborhood. Marcus likes to chase her around, yelling "duck, duck, duck!"

One day we found our three rascals making mud in the front yard and wearing it too. Here's Travis who knows he's in trouble but is enjoying the moment.

Lucas also knows he's in trouble and also realizes this photo will forever serve as evidence of this bad deed.

Marcus has no clue as to whether he's in trouble. He's just enjoying getting muddy like his brothers.

No words necessary here.

Needless to say Angela was not happy at seeing this sight (below). Brian kept his cool long enough to get photos of this event.

Lucas went to a birthday party recently and was our first kid ever to get their face painted. This is just a hilarious expression from Lucas, kinda freaky at the same time.

Here's Marcus looking cool in his shades. Travis played in his first coach pitch baseball game this past Saturday. He got a hit in his first at bat. Brian actually pitched the game for Travis' team since the coaches liked Brian's pitching during warm ups. Apparently Travis swung just a bit too early here.

Travis' 7th Birthday

2011-05-15T22:48:00.004-06:00

Our little Travis had his golden birthday on May 7th (turned 7 on the 7th). We decided that we'd start doing friend parties only on even birthdays from here on out, which idea we adopted from one of Brian's sisters. Travis had a fun filled day. Here he is waiting in anticipation before opening his gifts.

Here's Travis with his brownies and cinnamon rolls for a cake. He doesn't like cake so he wanted brownies. But while he and Brian were at Costco they couldn't resist buying one of our favorite things there, the mini cinnamon rolls (they're to die for after they've been warmed up for 10 seconds). You gotta love Lucas' expression in this shot.
Brian took Travis to Nickel City for his birthday in the afternoon. You pay an admission fee and then play arcade games for a nickel a piece.

Here was the first game we played to try to get some tickets. The first nickel we put in got us lucky enough to win the 100 ticket jackpot which we won again 5 nickels later! We only got a total of 250 tickets or so, so this machine was nice. One of the last games we played was air hockey. Travis beat Brian and here's some video of the end of the game.

Spring Break Highlight

2011-05-15T22:38:00.002-06:00

During our Spring Break for Travis' school and Lucas' preschool we had planned to go to the Kennecott Copper Mine to do the drive through tour of the mining operations there. The kids were all excited about going. Then we all loaded up in the car and as we were pulling out we noticed that something was wrong with our tire. Sure enough the front driver's side tire was flat and had a screw in it. Surely this would have crushed our kids day right? Nope, they loved the experience of changing the flat tire and helping dad do the jack and putting on the spare. When Travis returned to school all he reported on doing for his spring break was that he got to change a flat tire (apparently a highlight over going to Chuck E Cheese that week and other fun things). Here's Travis and Lucas putting the bolts on to hold the spare tire.

Here was an earlier picture of the three of us hard at work.

Marcus' First Haircut

2011-03-17T22:41:00.002-06:00

Here's a video that Aunt Marci took while Brian gave Marcus his first haircut in the bathtub. It was the best haircut Brian's ever been able to give to one of our children (regardless of age), in terms of how the child responded. Brian has done all the haircuts for all three boys for their whole lives and the older two always end up crying about it, not Marcus. Just a reminder to family who receive these posts by email, you must visit our blog to watch the video. It's a good laugh for sure! Even after the bath Marcus was so proud of his new haircut and would gesture to it often.

Travis' Tubes

2011-01-27T12:24:00.004-07:00

This was a big week for Travis. He lost his front tooth Tuesday morning as pictured below (his second lost tooth).

Today was the day that Travis had surgery to get tubes put in his ears. He had been having ear infection problems for some time now and the Ear, Nose, and Throat Doctor suggested that he have tubes put in his ears. So we scheduled for the surgery to take place this morning. We are happy to report that Travis did really well and is his normal happy self. He keeps commenting here or there, for example, "that water faucet is loud" or that Lucas is talking loudly. You can really tell that it has made a difference. He can actually hear you wisper to him, which hasn't been the case before. Brian took him in this morning at 7 am. He couldn't ear or drink before the appointment. We tried not to tell him what it was all about (he doesn't need to know until afterwards since he didn't need the stress of thinking about it right?). They wheeled him away, awake and laying on a hospital bed. Brian told him that he was going to see a special doctor today. They put him to sleep with some gas. They then sucked out the fluid out of both ears and put the tubes in place. They also surgically removed his adenoids (look it up on wikipedia) from the back of his nasal cavity. He woke up just fine and has been fairly happy. He said to the nurse that he didn't even know that they put in the tubes yet. What a relief!

Random Photos and Stories from 2010

2011-01-11T20:24:00.004-07:00

One afternoon one of the older boys was digging in the dirt and saw something wiggle. It turned out to be a snake and so he called for his dad. So Brian, Travis, and Lucas followed the snake as it went around the corner of our house. We tried to catch it in a bucket by using sticks to make it turn around. We eventually got it into the bucket after a good 10 minutes. We didn't harm the snake in the process. We then put things in the bucket to make the snake feel more at home. The snake was trying really hard to get out. Well after a while of watching him we went inside and when we returned we found him gone. We don't know if a cat got him or what. He didn't seem capable of slithering out the tall bucket. It was fun while it lasted.

Here's one of our favorite treats when we visit the Oregon Zoo in Portland, Elephant Ears. They are just really light fluffy pastries with cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on them.
Here's the boys one day when we took them to the water slides. Lucas looks like he just barely got out of the water with his head all wet still.

One day we went to Thanksgiving Point and toured their dinasour exhibit. It was pretty fun but very crowded too. The boys did enjoy the digging for the bones part.

Here's a random bath photo of the older boys enjoying a bubble bath.

Here's a photo from when Brian took the boys to Trafalga in Lehi. Travis drove this boat around and it had a squirt gun on it too. Lucas only wanted a short ride on it. Then Travis went solo. A young man and his date then got on separate boats and Travis started squirting them. At one point he had the girl pinned up against the island in the middle with his gun squirting directly on her and her gun facing the other way. Brian then had to tell Travis to stop. It wasn't exactly a warm day either.

Our boys LOVE cinnamon rolls. We often buy the ones that come in the cardboard tubes and the boys get so excited, even Marcus goes nuts. Here they are watching the rolls rise in the oven.

Travis and Lucas like to go out and play in the snow together. This was a funny photo. It looks like Travis must have knocked Lucas over onto the ground but that wasn't the case. Lucas was trying to make a snow angel.

This was a priceless photo op as well. Brian went in to check on the boys after they had been asleep one night, as he usually does, and found this. Yes they were alseep.

And finally here's a video of Lucas trying to get Marcus to laugh and make funny noises. Enjoy.

Christmas 2010 in Portland

2011-01-09T18:10:00.005-07:00

Angela's favorite time of the year - the Christmas season.

One Sunday afternoon we helped our boys make some graham cracker "gingerbread" houses. This was a tradition in Brian's childhood. Lucas' first design fell apart once he loaded up the roof with candy. So then we redesigned his house and this one stood. The boys never did eat it, though Lucas would eat some of the candies here and there. Pretty cool houses though.

Angela's grandparents, Afton and Doral, had their great grandchildren over one morning for a Christmas party. So Angela took Lucas and Travis over for that.
Christmas time also means the first snows of the year. A week before Christmas we got a bunch of snow and so Brian made a snowman (on the left) and Travis and Lucas made another (on the right). Then a day or two later it started raining all day. So Brian got out some rain coats for our snowmen to save them from melting. They ended up looking like ghosts!

Another day we made cornflake wreathes, another Anderson family tradition. They are rice crispie treats with corn flakes substituted and you add green food coloring and shape them into wreathes. Travis decided he wasn't interested so Marcus and Lucas had fun with them.

Then a day before we left to drive up to Portland for Christmas, we had aunt Marci come over so that we could open gifts from Brian's family (to save room in our packed van). So the kids got to enjoy two Christmases in effect. They were a bit sad to leave those new toys behind.

We then left at 4 am the next morning to get an early start on our long drive to Angela's parents house. We made it there quite quickly, despite the snowy conditions as we left Utah. One of the big hits while we were in Portland was Grandpa Jack's train set! Travis just loved to drive that train back and forth and pick up the cars. Marcus wanted to grad it but he'd get nervous every time it'd move.

On a couple occasions Brian took Travis and Lucas out geocaching in the area. At one of the caches we saw some animals guarding the cache site. This cache was cleverly disguised.

We even got the chance to get in the hot tub, and once was all we could take! It was lots of fun being in it and Brian and the boys must have stayed in for nearly 2 hours. It was the getting out part that was definetly not so fun since the temperatures were in the upper 30s or low 40s.

On Christmas morning, Marcus got up first and got the chance to enjoy his gift from Santa before his brothers could interferre. He likes his new bike, though it may not be till summer time before he can ride it on his own (which is just fine since the snow won't be gone for a while yet).

Then Lucas got up before Travis and came down to joy in getting a rollie pollie playground and remote control firetruck.

Finally Brian couldn't wait anymore and went and woke Travis up (at like 8 am). He happily discovered his pair of remote control helicopters and cool set of legos to build various machines with.

While we were there we went to OMSI in downtown Portland. We were there 5.5 hours and still maybe only got through 3/4 of it, and that required us hurrying through the 3/4 we saw. Here's aunt Heather and Grandma Diane helping Lucas make some goo.

And here's Lucas and Travis enjoying the water area with bibs that sort of kept them dry.

All three boys got matching PJs and once we got back home we dressed them all up for a photo. Marcus' PJs may be a bit too big still but it made for a cute photo.

While we were trying to get a photo taken, this was a common sight. I guess boys will be boys...

Thanksgiving 2010 in Arizona

2011-01-09T14:45:00.002-07:00

We traveled down to Arizona to visit Brian's sister Stacy's house for Thanksgiving. Aunt Marci rode in the car with us too. Brian's parents also joined us. We missed Lisa's family there for sure. We enjoyed some swimming in late November, lots of shopping, and enjoying family for the wonderful dinner. Here's Brian and his boys enjoying the pool.

On our way back home we drove the Las Vegas route to avoid the more snowy roads. We got to cross the fairly new Hoover Dam Bridge. It's quite the bridge. We stopped and hiked up to walk on the bridge and see the huge dam far below. Here we are up on the windy bridge.
Finally here's a swimming video from while we were down there. Travis has really started to swim well. Lucas stayed to the sides of the pool but apparently made Grandma Carla a little nervous.

Halloween 2010

2011-01-09T14:36:00.002-07:00

We had a good Halloween this year. It was quite cold on the actual Halloween night but it a fun holiday to prepare for and participate in. Here's our "light at the end of the tunnel", our kids, while they were at a pumpkin patch.

Here's Mom and her boys at the patch looking cute.
Here's Lucas and Travis removing the seeds from thir pumpkins before we carved them.

Finally, here's our SWAT team police man, bumble bee, and Thomas the Tank Engine little boys. We were a bit surprised that Marcus was willing to wear his costume at all.

BYU Homecoming

2011-01-09T14:15:00.003-07:00

Brian's oldest sister Stacy and her family came to Provo for the BYU Homecoming weekend and Brian's parents also came from California for it too. Here's our family sporting our BYU Football t-shirts (they don't make them in Marcus' size).

Brian and Travis actually got to be in the Homecoming Parade on the Saturday morning. The Acoustics Group at BYU made a float to celebrate the 50th year anniversary of acoustics research being conducted at BYU with student involvement (Harvey Fletcher was the first to mentor students in acoustics research at BYU). Here's Lucas, Travis, and Brian in front of the acoustics float after the parade (the float won the Best Homecoming Theme Award). Travis and Brian rode a scooter and a bicycle behind the float and passed out candy.
Stacy's family, Brian's parents, Brian's sister Marci, and Brian and Travis then went to the Homecoming Football game against San Diego St. Here's all of us at the end of the game with the field in the background. Along the top row from L to R is Vance, Carla, Marci, Brian, and Garrin. On the second row is Stacy, Wesley, Ashley, Travis, Audrey, and Jacoby.

After the game Travis and Wesley got a fun chance to have their photo taken with the BYU mascot Cosmo. Cosmo even took Travis' hat and wore it for the photo.

In this first video below you can see the acoustics float as it passed by the Anderson clan with Brian and Travis trailing behind it. Go BYU!

Later that evening Grandpa Vance was in a very silly mood. He was really entertaining all the grandkids as they tried to copy his every move. There's two videos of the fun that ensued.

Pippin Cabin Labor Day Weekend

2011-01-09T14:04:00.002-07:00

For perhaps 5 years now the Pippin Family has been getting together at the Pippin Family Cabin up Hobble Creek Canyon every year over Labor Day Weekend. We look forward to these weekends and have lots of fun visiting with all of our family and enjoying the cabin.

As has become a traditional part of this trip we often shoot BB guns off the front porch at used cups or cans. This year we brought up Brian's airsoft guns and our older boys had some fun shooting them.

Brian did more work on the tree house that he has been building up there. All the cousins seemed to have fun up there in the treehouse, even Marcus.
Another fun thing are the 3 wheelers that Grandpa tunes up and lets us ride. Here's Brian and Travis before they head out on one.

Now it's Lucas' turn...

Here's a bunch of the cousins having some fun together after Grandma Pippin led them all on a treasure hunt. From L to R standing on the porch is Eric, Christopher, and JV. Sitting on the top step is Abby, Preston, and Hunter. Lucas is on the next step. Then Spencer and Ryan are on the bottom step. Carson and Travis are standing on the cement pad. Our two pregnant aunts (both had their babys since then), Adrienne and Amber are on the porch too.

We look forward to the 2011 get together as well.

2011-01-09T13:47:00.002-07:00

Brian is currently serving in our ward (church) as the Priest's Quorum Advisor (a leader over boys ages 16-18). He has been going on campouts and having a good time with them in their activities. Below is a photo from a hike to Notch Lake up in the Uinta Mountains of Utah. During the hike they stopped to take photos at this cool lake pictured below that was very calm and had a cool mirror background.

During the summer Brian took the Aaronic Priesthood youth leaders up to Angela's family cabin for a leadership training retreat. It was a fun outing. Looks like a rough group of boys huh?Brian is also involved with the Acoustics Research Group at BYU. It is made up of like 5 professors and 30 students all working on acoustics related research. One week they went to visit Lavell Edwards Stadium to tour the audio systems in the stadium. At one point they got to visit the announcer's booth so Brian got his photo taken.

Brian debated for a while as to whether or not to post the video below. It's a video from a youth talent show for our church youth. Brian decided to show off his talent of walking on his hands in a creative way. He dressed with his clothes upsidedown and had a balloon between his legs as a fake head. The video is fairly self explanatory, enjoy. Brian knows that this is quite ridiculous but he did it for the pure enjoyment of the youth.

Angela's Birthday

2011-01-09T13:39:00.002-07:00

Angela celebrated her 31st birthday during our July visit to her parent's house in Portland. We did a pinata and everyone had a good time.

Around September, Angela decided to start following a program called the Eat Clean Diet. She has been eating healthy foods basically every three hours and drinking lots of water. This diet is quite interesting since you are to eat a lot of food, but it's suppose to be healthy. She has actually enjoyed the healthy food tastes too, though it has been hard on occasion, like when Brian brings home Little Ceasers pizza for the 4 boys to eat. She has also stepped up her work out schedule at the gym as well. She lost 25 pounds in those three months time! She's fitting into smaller clothes these days and is happy about her accomplishments. If any of you wish to learn more about this Eat Clean thing, just contact Angela and she'd be more than happy to tell you all about it.

Lucas' 2010

2011-01-03T21:44:00.003-07:00

We now move on to Lucas' 2010. He is quite the charmer and is eager to please people. He loves to organize things and loves collecting rollie pollies. Here's Lucas enjoying a pinata at Angela's birthday party in Portland, OR this past July. Oh yeah, did I mention that Lucas LOVES candy and can't get enough of it!

Here's Lucas in his element out digging in the dirt looking for rollie pollies.
Lucas started going to preschool at a local preschool that is done a block away from our home. Here he is on his first day. He really enjoys it and is learning a lot. He is our first kid that actually wants to try to read and learn letters and words.

Lucas then turned the big age 4 in December. He decided that he wanted to open his presents from his family early in the morning. I love Marcus peeking around the cereal box to see the camera.

Angela made Lucas' birthday cake with a bug theme. Lucas had 8 friends over for his all bug themed party. Angela created a few different games for the kids to all play that had to do with bugs. They decorated bug jars and then collected plastic bugs that had to be found out in our backyard. The kids all seemed to really have a fun time at his party.

Here's Lucas saying his part for the Primary Program before church. He practiced it well. His whole class said this part together. At the end of the video is Travis saying his individual part which he didn't get to do at church because Angela had to take him to the doctor for his ear infection instead of going to church because it was hurting him. Doesn't Lucas just look so sharp in his Sunday best?

Marcus' 2010

2011-01-03T21:19:00.005-07:00

Next we'll cover Marcus' 2010 since his birthday comes next after Travis'. Marcus turned 1 year old this year. He's a happy little boy and VERY independent. He wants to feed HIMSELF and doesn't want his food cut up into little pieces. He's also the easiest kid ever to put down to sleep, we just wrap him up and place him in his crib and don't hear from him for a few hours. He does wake up 2-3 times per night and Dad helps him quickly get back to sleep. Here he is with Angela one day that we were out geocaching as a family.

Here's Marcus on the Utah Lake Festival Day when we rode out on a boat to the middle of the lake. The life jacket didn't exactly fit him did it?
We were in Portland, OR during July for Marcus' birthday. He had fun opening the presents.

Marcus initially liked the eating of the cake...

But then he realized that it made his hands messy and he was no longer happy about feeding himself cake with his bare hands.

We also visited the Portland Zoo during this visit. Here's Marcus with his Grandma Pippin seeing the elephants.

One day we went up to a park in Salt Lake City when we drove up to pick up Aunt Heather from the airport. We found an area of the park where there's water running down a series of mini canals. Our boys really enjoyed letting water push down some balls. Even Marcus enjoyed himself in the water.

This picture needs no explanation, just cute!

Now this photo is funny. These are bars of soap. Sometimes we have to take a shower with Marcus awake, so we bring him into the bathroom with some toys and shut the door. Usually he plays with the toys but he often gets bored and starts exploring the contents of the drawers. Well he found some bars of soap and unwrapped them. Then he did the logical experiment and bit into them to determine the taste. Apparently one bar of soap wasn't enough as evidenced by the teeth marks in both bars of soap below.

Angela took the boys to a local pumpkin patch during October. Here's Marcus with a gigantic pumpkin.

This photo was taken shortly before Christmas when we got 12 inches of snow overnight. Marcus is starting to have some fun for a while out in the snow until eventually he falls down and gets snow on his hands, then it's no longer fun anymore.

Marcus learned to walk at about 10-11 months of age. He's the first video we got of him doing alright with walking. He now is quite fast and nearly keeps up with his older brothers.

One other thing worth mentioning that we learned about Marcus in 2010 is that he's dairy intolerant and is severly allergic to peanut. We had him start drinking normal cow's milk at 1 year of age ad noticed that his diapers were bad and that he's get facial rashes. We had him alergy tested and found these things out. He now drinks almond milk regularly and can eat cheese when it's cooked. Hopefully he'll grow out of the milk intolerance soon (the doctors think it's fairly likely he will). We also have to now carry around an epipen to give him a shot if he even gets a peanut exposure that causes him to have shortness of breath. We actually recently dodged a bullet when he found a Reeses peanut butter candy at the candy station at the mall and we were able to fish it out of his mouth without incident. We now have a peanut ban in our house. We threw away our peanut butter and don't buy trail mix or snickers anymore.

Travis' 2010

2011-01-03T20:15:00.008-07:00

We haven't made a post in 8 months to our blog. Sorry about the delay. What we decided to do was to create a series of grouped blogs to finish out 2010 so that we'd be back up to date. So one will be about all things Travis, one about Marcus, and one about Lucas. Then we'll do some for our various trips and other things. So here goes the first one.

Travis turned 6 in 2010. People often ask him whether he's 7 or 8 years old because of his height. Travis' aunt Marci and Lucas colored our driveway with a Happy Birthday note for Travis when he came home from school.

We then had a family party for Travis. He got a mini remote control jeep, a lego fire helicopter set and a metal detector among other things. He really enjoyed his presents.

We did do a small friend party for Travis. We picked up two friends and took them to a remote control race track where men come to race their high powered cars on Saturdays. If you'd like to visit one, just google for one in your area. We visited one in New Mexico and now have one close by here in Utah. The boys were quite thrilled by the fast race cars. One man even let Travis drive his car until Travis drove it off the track (the car was fine).

Later on, Travis lost his first tooth on his bottom front teeth. We put it in a bag to hide under his pillow but he lost the bag. The tooth fairy still came since she knew about the lost lost tooth.

Travis did T-ball for the first time in late spring. Brian was the assistant coach for the team. The coach, Jesi Early, is a family friend of ours that we knew in Pennsylvania. Travis is the second from the left on the top row wearing the "Y" hat. He was quite good and one of the better hitters on our team.

Here's Travis with his Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Anderson (no, there's no relation to us, despite the red hair and all). She was a good first teacher for Travis, firm but loving. Travis really liked her. Angela and Brian both volunteered in the classroom a few times. Angela was a weekly helper in the classroom and Brian helped the kids with science subjects and their Invention Convention class project where they "invented" musical instruments out of trash and left over items.

During the summer we took advantage of the free fishing day at Utah Lake as we did last year. Travis really enjoyed his first real experience with fishing. He even was able to cast out the lure quite well casting it out like 50 feet.

Travis was doing so well I guess that a Salt Lake Tribune newspaper photographer decided to take photos of him and Brian while they fished. We actually made the newspaper as the headline photo for the Utah Lake Festival Day. Lucas is also in the photo at the lower center of the picture wearing a hat.

Then later in the summer Travis played on a youth soccer team. Brian volunteered to be the coach for the team. Travis was with 6 and 7 year olds. He wasn't the best player on our team, partly because he had a hard time listening to his dad, but mostly because he was just younger. He enjoyed playing forward and played goalie a couple times too.

We have also recently discovered the Kids Workshop days at Home Depot. They do them every first Saturday of the month and they're free for kids. The first time they give you a work apron with your name on it and then for each project you complete you earn a pin to put on your apron. The first time we went Travis and Lucas each got to make a fire rescue boat. They provide the supplies and tools for free and we did it behind the store on a patio area. Travis really got into it and enjoyed the hammering and construction.

In October Brian got to pick up a free pass to the Trafalga Fun Center for our family. Unfortunately Angela had a conflict for the only night we could go so Brian took all three boys for a fun filled few hours. We played mini golf, the boys drove around a boat, they drove bumper cars, rode a merri-go-round, played laser tag, and Travis even got to do a climbing wall. Here he is below climbing a tree. He did this for a while and really had fun.

Below are a couple videos of Travis. Just a reminder to family who receive these blog posts by email that you have to visit our actual blog site to watch the videos.

Here's Travis trying to sing the BYU Fight Song. Gotta love it, especially his expression when he finishes.

These next two videos are of Travis playing T-ball. First he's hitting and there's a mixup in base running. Then there's Travis scoring a run (well he almost gets to home plate) and you also see Lucas running onto the field and Brian grabbing him.

Next we have Travis' last day of swimming lessons where they got to jump off of the diving board. Angela watched the video below with no idea what Travis was up to. Travis' teacher had told the kids that if any of them were brave enough to do a belly flop that he would too. SO what do you know Travis did one. We didn't get video of his teacher's flop unfortunately. Travis said it hurt a little bit.

Finally we have Travis doing a goal kick during a soccer game when he was playing goalie. The kids with white jerseys are his teammates. Good thing he got to the ball first to get a better kick in.

Travis' Recent Amusing Conversations

2010-04-09T09:04:00.004-06:00

Recently Travis has had some enjoyable conversations.

One of them happened the other night. He and Lucas were playing pirate. They were using our couch as their pirate ship. Travis exclaimed "I'm the captain!" Then Lucas chimed in and said "I'm the matey!" (I'm sure this was Travis' idea.) Then whenever Travis wanted Lucas to follow him he'd say "come on matey let's go get our treasure." Then ended up stacking up our couch quite high with various toys (their treasure). Above our couch hangs three frames, one of the LDS First Presidency, one depicting the second coming of Christ (surrounded by angels blowing trumpets, it's a standard LDS photo), and a nicely framed copy of The Living Christ (a gift from Brian's sister Stacy). Travis at one point was describing their pirate loot and patted the first two frames and said "and we've got the prophets, but I don't know their names, and we've got Jesus." Then after some thought he turned to Angela and asked "Mom, why are all the angels girls?" Here's the picture he was referring to.

Due to the Easter season we have been talking a lot to our boys about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We talked about how after we die we will live again because Jesus made it possible when he was resurrected. We also have a photo family tree on our fridge with Travis at the bottom and then his parents and his grandparents and his great grandparents (each with their photos displayed). One morning Travis said to his mom "Mom, I put the heart magnet on Grandma Ellen's picture." Then later "Mom, when will we see Grandma again?" (Grandma Ellen, Brian's maternal grandmother, passed away last July and Travis did get to meet her a few months before she passed away and apparently still remembers her). Angela then said "after the resurrection we'll see her again." Travis then replied "Mom, when's the zerrection?" Angela, trying not to laugh too hard, said "It will happen after Jesus comes again." Travis then asked "Mom, when will Jesus come again?" Angela replied "I don't know Travis, nobody knows." Travis then countered "but Mom, God knows! Let's pray and ask God when Jesus is coming!"

It's so fun to see his wheels turning and hear him start to understand the gospel in some manner. He apparently isn't very quiet in his church classes and his teachers wonder if he listens to the lessons. Nor does he sing during singing time. We'll when he's home he tells us all about the lesson he had in great detail. Also when he's playing with his toys he'll start singing the Primary songs. So apparently he's listening intently!

Happy Easter 2010

2010-04-08T16:45:00.003-06:00

We had a family home evening on the Monday before Easter and talked about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The boys drew pictures of Jesus at the Garden Tomb. We were impressed with Travis' drawing and his knowledge of this event that he learned in Primary. They drew on our new easel that we purchased from Ikea.

We did an Easter Egg Hunt Saturday morning before easter at a local high school. Here's Lucas looking for eggs.
We also did a hunt at our house and here's Lucas with his loot.

Here's Travis enjoying his loot.

The next morning, the Easter Bunny brought the boys some paint brush sets with a light up brush. They also got bags of sand for the sand box outside.

Marcus also got some soft balls to bite on.

We were fortunate to have Angela's father come that weekend to help his mother with her taxes. We took Jack with us minature golfing at a dark indoor course with black lights.

The boys really had fun with their grandpa.

A couple other videos

2010-04-08T16:25:00.003-06:00

Here's Marcus trying to talk.

Here's Marcus dancing to some improv music by Lucas. Lucas has got rhythm doesn't he!

Various Recent Photos

2010-04-08T16:06:00.002-06:00

Here's little Marcus posing for the camera.

Here's aunt Marci with the boys. She watches them every Wed. for a couple hours.
Here's Lucas showing how much he is enjoying his chocolate candy.

Marcus is getting better at being content on the floor. He likes to get up on his hands and knees. He goes backwards fairly well but can't quite figure out how to go forward.

The boys were having fun playing soldier. Lucas looks quite vunerable here.

Now that's a scary soldier for ya huh! You wouldn't want to mess with this!

Here's Marcus up on his hands and knees.

Travis likes to get down on the floor and play with Marcus. You can see Marcus in the reflection in Travis' glasses.

Our boys like to watch Veggie Tales. Lucas is quite funny to watch when the theme song comes on in the beginning. Enjoy! (again family, you must see the website to watch)

Water Water Everywhere

2010-04-08T15:53:00.004-06:00

Lucas and Travis did indoor swimming lessons recently. It was Lucas' first lessons and he did fairly well. Here's Lucas enjoying the water.

We also went to some indoor water slides for family home evening. Here's our cute little baby Marcus enjoying the pool with his dad.

Lucas took some time to warm up to all of the excitement at the slides but eventually got brave enough to try everything.

Here's Travis, Brian, and Lucas enjoying the water.

Lucas loved these smaller water slides.

Here's a more recent photo of all three boys during bath time. Marcus loves taking baths, as do the older two as well.

Finally here's a video of Brian and Travis splashing down at the bottom of one of the large water slides. (Family members you cannot watch this video in the email, you have to visit our website)

Hunter's Birthday Party

2010-04-08T15:44:00.004-06:00

The boys' cousin Hunter had his 6 year old birthday party recently and they celebrated with a pinata. This was Lucas' first real chance to beat up a pinata. He got some good swings in!

Travis did well hitting the pinata as well. He's going to start playing T-ball pretty soon here and his dad is the assistant coach for his team.

Fun at Jungle Jim's

2010-03-07T15:48:00.003-07:00

Our family went to enjoy a half day at Jungle Jim's. It's an indoor place with carnival rides. Adults were free and we had a buy one get one free for Travis and Lucas. It was too good of a deal to pass up. Mom was a good sport and rode with the boys on some of the rides (Dad gets motion sick too easily). This one went around in a circle fast and then went backwards (the boys didn't start out squished up against Mom).

Travis and Lucas enjoyed this jeep jungle ride too, though it was a much slower pace.
By the time they flew in the airplanes, both of they were fighting over who got to fly the plane (this one allowed you to lift and lower the plane during the ride).

In the bumper cars, Travis took the wheel. He's a crazy driver, and we hope his skills improve by age 16.

This was the drinking fountain there (quite indimidating, almost reminds you of Brian's grandparent's tiger, only much larger).

Mom rode another spinning ride with Lucas (though they didn't spin much at Mom's request).

Here's a solo flight by Travis. Even Lucas flew solo a few times. They had a great time.

Dad mostly held Marcus who fell asleep for a good portion of our time there. Here's the three oldest boys pretending to drive the race cars (someday they'll realize there's an actual game if you put money in it).

Travis played a drop the crane and pick up candy game. He actually won a 50 ticket bundle and he was pretty proud of himself. Lucas was upset that he didn't get a turn (though don't worry, he had the next turn).

Snow Fun

2010-03-07T15:44:00.003-07:00

We haven't had a LOT of snow this winter but we've had some good times when it's fallen. Both Travis and Lucas love to be out playing in it. They both even enjoy shoveling (Dad hopes that continues for many many years). These photo were taken in our front yard.

Here's Lucas' first snow angel ever.
And here's Travis' snow angel.

Marcus Update

2010-03-07T15:36:00.002-07:00

Our little guy Marcus is growing up. Here he is in his warm winter outfit (he's already ready for Halloween!).

We've been feeding him solids since we got back from Christmas break. He's doing well. We still mix oatmeal or rice cereal with some baby food. He seems to like anything we give him.
We wish he was a better sleeper at night but he's so darn cute!

His brothers enjoy him too. Here's the hats that their dad got them for Christmas. Marcus has been sitting up really well lately. He even sits up all during bathtime in the water (it makes Mom nervous but Dad is always there to catch him if he slips).

Marcus will be 8 months old in another week.

Snow Sledding

2010-01-03T21:41:00.002-07:00

Our family went snow sledding this past Saturday at a local park. Travis had a great time. It surprised us about how brave and tough he was. In his first run he took a bit of a spill but still enjoyed it. His second run he got going really fast and unfortunately Brian was still at the top of the hill and Angela didn't think to stop him since she was videoing it (this is the first video clip). Travis ended up somehow going right between a grouping of trees without hitting them (it was the narrowest path possible through the trees) and then his sled went out into the parking lot and a truck driving up luckily saw him in plently of time. He enjoyed it but it gave Mom and Dad quite a scare. There were some other dads nearby that jumped into action to run after Travis and ensure his safety (thankfully). After that scare we moved to a different part of the park that gave much more room to stop in the clear wide open. (a reminder to family that videos cannot be watched through email and you have to visit our blog to watch them)

This second video is of Lucas doing a solo sled run. He was quite brave himself! Don't worry after he sled down Brian finished the video and ran down to him. He enjoyed it.

This last video is of Travis going off of a jump (not sure if he planned that or not). Again he really enjoyed it. We he started to turn towards Brian, Brian had to make sure to grab Lucas and be ready to jump out of the way.

Anderson Family 2009 Christmas Letter

2010-01-03T21:17:00.004-07:00

Thanks to our photographer Marci (Brian's sister).

Christmas Vacation in Arizona

2010-01-03T20:28:00.006-07:00

This year Brian's whole family got together in Arizona at his sister Stacy's house for Christmas. It was a great time (despite getting really sick just before coming home). It was so nice to see everyone there and enjoy catching up with each other and sharing such a precious time of the year. Here's Travis and Lucas out on the trampoline with some of their cousins.

Here's little Marcus (his first Christmas). We caught him trying to get into all the presents on Christmas Eve... He looks pretty stunned that we caught him huh! (in case you can't tell, this photo was staged)
We had a Christmas program on Christmas Eve. Here's how much Lucas got out of it. He's quite a wild kid at times.

Here's Grandpa Vance holding Marcus Vance.

Here's Marcus' gift from Santa. He enjoys tickling (more like pounding) the ivory.

Here's Travis' loot from Santa. He really wanted a 2 wheel scooter, a rescue helicopter, and a watch. Santa came through, it must have been because Travis got his letter delivered directly to Santa (see the helicopter blog post) and early in the season.

Lucas' main gift was a large set of Thomas tracks and train. He seemed more interested in Marcus' gift until we asked him about his train from Santa. He responded "what train?" So we showed him and he was quite happy. Funny that it didn't register with him at first seeing the box.

One evening we visited the Mesa Temple to see the Christmas lights on display on the grounds.

Here's a cousins pic at the temple. From L to R it's Audrey (Stacy's 4th), Jasmine (Lisa's 2nd), Natalya (Lisa's 1st), Travis, Marcus, Ashley (Stacy's 2nd), Britton (Lisa's 3rd), Emily (Stacy's 1st), Jacoby (Stacy's 3rd), Lucas, and Wesley (Stacy's 5th).

One day Brian took 6 kids out geocaching. Good thing Jacoby came to provide assistance with all these kids. We found three geocaches and had a good time.

We often went to parks while we were there. Here's Brian and Marcus on a bridge at one park. Marcus wanted to be held most of the time he was awake. It wasn't too much of a problem since there were many willing hands to hold him, though since we got back home it's been a bit hard.

Here's our monkey up in the tree.

Now for the 5 videos in this post (just a reminder to family, you cannot view these in your email, you have to visit our blog to watch them).

This first one is of Travis flying a plane that Brian got from his sister Stacy. All the men got them and we had a good time flying them at the park.

Here's a first for Marcus. He rolled over somewhat consistently when he was just 3 months old. However, we finally got him on video, so this is the first video recording of him rolling. He didn't seem too happy about it.

One day we went to a nearby gymnastics open gym time. It was a lot of fun for the kids, especially when they jumped into this big foam pit. It reminded Brian of his gymnastics days. Here's Lucas doing some fairly impressive gymnastics, especially when considering he hasn't been taught how to sommersault.

After seeing Travis do this jump, he should be plenty ready for his first jump off the diving board this coming summer.

Last but not least, Brian's sister's dog had puppies just past midnight on the 23rd (really they were born on Christmas Eve). Their dog had 5 puppies so it was fun to see these little cute puppies. Travis and Lucas each got a chance to hold them and as you can see, it made them quite nervous.

Graff Family Christmas Party

2010-01-03T20:16:00.002-07:00

Every year the Graff family (Angela's mom's side) gets together for a family Christmas party. This year is was the Pippin family's turn to be in charge, which meant heavy involvement from Angela. Here are a few pics from the party.

Grandma Graff reading the story for the left and right present passing game.
Here's one half of the circle during the activities...

...and now the other half.

Here's our family photo with Santa. Santa came to the party and magically made some snow (that you can see on the floor). It was a fun time.

Some Random Photos

2010-01-03T20:07:00.004-07:00

Here are some random photos of our boys. Here's Lucas and Marcus playing.

Here's a tough to photograph, though common smile for Marcus.
Another cute face for Marcus.

One night Brian checked on the older boys and found this... I guess Lucas didn't want to sleep by himself.

One day we got a bunch of snow and then some rain. It made for perfect packing snow so we had to build a snowman. It didn't even last the night though since someone knocked him down.

Here's one of our boys' favorite things to do, put orange slices into our juicer and make pure orange juice. We usually then make fruit smoothies with it. They love to smash the orange pieces down.

Travis got to go to school on day just before the Christmas break wearing PJs. It was PJ day for the whole school. Quite a contrast from his typical uniform.

Happy 3rd Birthday Lucas!

2009-12-12T21:32:00.002-07:00

We celebrated Lucas' 3rd birthday this past Monday the 7th. We decided to do a family party without friends. Lucas asked to go bowling but we had too much snow to want to go out that evening. Brian's sister Marci did come though despite the snow and we were glad she made it. Angela made a Little People cake, at Lucas' request. It was a chocolate cake with rainbow chip frosting. Angela then used skittles to make three stars on top with three Little People figures on the cake (Lucas loves skittles). Here's Mom and Lucas with the cake.

Then Lucas opened his presents. Here he and Travis are with his loot.
Here's Lucas trying to blow out the "3" candle. On the first try, we sang Happy Birthday to Lucas and then Travis blew it out. Then we put Travis on the other end of the table and resang to Lucas with a relit candle. This time Lucas did it on like the 5th try (he was a little scared of the flame we think).

Here's Dad and Lucas cutting into the cake. I'm pretty sure Lucas just ate the skittles, no cake (typical Lucas only eating the candy).

BYU Christmas Party

2009-12-12T21:22:00.002-07:00

BYU held a Christmas party for all faculty, staff and their families last Saturday. Our boys enjoyed going. One of the first things they did was "Ice Fishing" where you drop a clip down in a hole and win a prize. Travis got a surprise though when the fish jumped out of the ice hole and bit his fishing pole.

Then the boys did crafts. They both wanted to make a BYU frisbee but Travis got the last kit. Lucas then selected to make some star wand thing that he's showing off below.
We tried to get a family photo with this neat background. Even Marcus wasn't interested in complying. To be honest, this is how the majority of our family photos turn out.

One final game that Travis played was pin the nose on Rudolph. Here's his performance on video. Despite going to the wrong Rudolph he did rather well with his nose placement.

The Lights on Temple Square

2009-12-12T21:14:00.005-07:00

On a recent Sunday, we decided, somewhat last minute, to go up to Temple Square in Salt Lake City to see the Christmas lights on Temple Square. It must have been a long day for our boys because all three of them fell asleep on the drive up (Travis nearly literally "fell" asleep).

Here's a pretty shot with the SLC Temple in the background.

Here's Travis making a silly face.

Here's a better photo of Travis posing below the Christus statue in the Visitor's Center.

Marcus was a good trooper. We tried to bundle him up as much as we could and wrap him in a blanket. As long as he could see out he was fine.

Lucas also had a good time and did lots of running around with Travis.

Another neat photo of the temple with some lights.

We took Angela's sister Heather up there with us. It was her first time seeing the lights there. Angela and Brian have been there two times previously.

J.V. and Hunter - Monster Truck Game

2009-12-12T21:09:00.002-07:00

After thanksgiving we had a visit from Angela's brother Scott's family. Their two boys J.V. and Hunter (Travis' age) and Travis played our Monster Truck Wii game (one of Travis' favorite games). Here's a short video clip of the excitement.

Santa's Helicopter Landing

2009-12-12T16:36:00.002-07:00

On Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, we went to University Mall to see Santa fly in on a helicopter. It was very exciting for the kids and blew off Brian's hat!

Travis was a bit nervous about all the wind as it landed.
Here's Lucas, Brian and Travis as we waited for Santa to appear.

Santa got out and walked around the perimeter to greet the children.

Then, the best part of all, Travis brought an envelope with him with his Christmas list inside. He thought that since we'd see Santa that he could give him his envelope. Well we told him we weren't sure if he'd have a chance to do so. Well as Santa came around, Brian took video and Travis had his chance... Watch the video below to see.

Thanksgiving

2009-12-12T16:29:00.003-07:00

Angela's sisters Amber (and her family) and Heather came to our house to share Thanksgiving with us. Here's some of the kids and Amber playing before the meal.

Here's our dinner spread. We extended out the table to have places for things.
Here's one end of the table, from L to R it's Lucas, Angela, Mike, Isobel, and Amber.

And here's the other end of the table, from L to R (around the back first) it's Heather, Marcus, Brian, Travis and then Lucas again.

Thanks Amber and Heather for coming and helping Angela in making the dinner and providing her with many shopping trips.

Pirate Island

2009-12-12T13:03:00.002-07:00

We recently went to a place here called Pirate Island. It's like Chuck E Cheese but a bit more of a normal resturant feel for the food. This background was at the entrance.

Who's Who?

2009-11-22T23:24:00.002-07:00

For some reason we have taken photos of all three of our boys with a blue onesy on with them on their tummies laying on a certain kind of burp cloth when they were each 3-4 months old. Well here are the three of them. I'll tell you who's who after you scroll through them.

So the first photo is Marcus, the second Lucas, and the third is Travis. Anyway just thought you might enjoy seeing all three at similar ages. We just had a 4 month appointment for Marcus and found out that he's at the 25% for weight, height, and head size. Lucas was like 50% for height and like 5% for weight. Travis was 90% for height and 0.14% for weight. This begs the question of whether gravity is increasing over time since each of our boys are steadily getting shorter and heavier. For sure Travis was the most odd being so tall and skinny.

Happy Halloween!

2009-11-01T22:49:00.003-07:00

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...

2009-11-01T22:34:00.004-07:00

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

2009-11-01T22:22:00.003-07:00

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

2009-10-10T08:33:00.004-06:00

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

2009-10-10T08:20:00.003-06:00

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

2009-09-13T22:38:00.003-06:00

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).