Changing it up

For the past twelve years Jen has worked in the Semiconductor industry as a Process Integration Engineer (between both Motorola/Freescale and IM Flash Technologies).  As of today - Jen has a new position at work.  She is now a manager for the Process Control Systems (PCS) group at IM Flash Technologies.  We are excited about the new position - there are lots of knowledge growth opportunities in control systems theory and guiding a team of engineers to apply that theory to help make IM Flash successful.

GO JEN!

Miss Chelsea

Ever since Zach started going to Bright Beginnings Daycare (almost six months ago) he has had a crush on one of the teacher assistants - Miss Chelsea. Now.... Miss Chelsea is a very attractive lady in her early twenties who is either engaged or married (has a ring on her finger). When Dustin dropped the kids off this morning at daycare - Zach's teacher Miss Amalia was VERY excited to talk to Dustin. She LOVES seeing Zach with his crush on Miss Chelsea....and proceeded to tell us about a conversation Zach had with Miss Chelsea last week:

"Miss Chelsea, I like you. Will you go out to dinner with me? Or to my house?"

Oh boy - 4 years old and already asking the older girls out.

The power of the gator

This gator apparently attracts the girls in the neighborhood. Who knew? While Logan was taking a nap this afternoon - Zach took the gator for a drive. He picked up the neighbor girls Hallie and Sydney....then a short while later, Lily from down the street joined in the fun! He was able to fit all of them on his gator for a neighborhood ride.



The part I DIDN'T catch on camera was the kids riding the gator down the hill on the side of our house in the backyard - I think that will become the new 'thing' to do around here....

Blazin' Challenge

Buffalo Wild Wings recently opened up here in Lehi. It is hot wings place...and every man around is foaming at the mouth. A discussion was started to see who would take the Buffalo Wild Wings "Blazin' Challenge" - today we had three contenders. Dustin, Jeff Krotosky and Gabe (another co-worker of ours).

So what is involved in the "Blazin' Challenge"? After signing a wavier you are given 12 boned chicken wings slathered in the hottest sauce Buffalo Wild Wings makes. You have six minutes to eat all 12 wings using no napkins and taking no drinks. The staff gathers around you at the table and cheers you on - and gives a play by play over the intercom speaker system of the restaurant. And what do you get if you complete this challenge? Your picture on a wall, a head sweatband.....and a coupon for 6 free wings. So of our table of 13 today - 3 (all men....a theme?) took the challenge.

Here is Dustin signing his wavier...

The "Blazin' Challenge" wings....12 of the hottest!

Gabe and Jeff start going to town.....

Jeff blew everyone out of the water....he ate all 12 wings in 1 minute and 25 seconds! The record at the store was 1 minute 47 seconds - he beat it by 22 seconds!

Gabe and Dustin kept going at it.....

And at 4 minutes and 20 seconds, Dustin completed the challenge...notice the very red face, and slightly teared eyes!

Gabe wasn't far behind Dustin - he finished in 4 minutes 57 seconds. Gabe's face was the reddest, and you could see tears rolling down his eyes.

All three were victorious and posed happily for this picture (notice the head sweatband prize?!)

Zach quickly commandeered the sweatband and wore it around proudly all day long!

So when it was all said and done all the men agreed that they were glad they did the challenge but had NO DESIRE to EVER do it again. One time was enough....and that item has been crossed off the bucket list!

Is Spring here?

We found these in the store today....

We spent lots of time playing in this also.....

Wouldn't that mean Spring is here to stay?

HOA Easter Egg Hunt

It is getting to be that time of year again....

...time for our annual HOA Easter Egg hunt! This is the 3rd year we have had this hunt in our neighborhood, and the first year the weather was picture perfect! Upper 60s, clear sky, no breeze....we couldn't have asked for a better day!

Of course since the weather was nice that means LOTS of our neighbors joined in this year. I don't think we have ever seen this big of a turn out for a neighborhood event. The HOA committee did an awesome job, there was PLENTY of goodies for all the kids involved in the hunt. Our kids both filled their baskets and there was still tons of stuff left to grab.

Logan's age group was first for the hunting....Dustin helped show him the ropes.

When Logan was done - he just sat on the ground and started ripping into his candy. He didn't care there was more candy out there....he had all he needed.

Zach was a good sport and actually watched Logan do his Easter Egg hunt and cheered him on. Of course Zach got super excited when it came time for his age group to go! He ran around like crazy...actually tripped and spilled everything out of his basket and then scrambled to pick it all up again. He still made out like a bandit...

This was our attempt at a cute kid picture with the little golf course lake in the background....they were a bit too into what was in the baskets and trying to eat it all at once!

This was Jen's favorite picture of Logan....

And part of the bunny family!

We sat on the grass for a good 15-20 minutes and let the kids go to town on the candy.....they may have been on a sugar high, but that also means a crash and burn for a nap in the afternoon....right?

Jumpin' Monster Trucks

Dustin and Zach went for a quick trip to Best Buy over the weekend for a specific cable. They didn't return with the cable...but instead returned with a mini RC Monster Truck. I think this particular item sparked Dustin's interest because you use your apple ipad or iphone as the remote....and of course Zach loves anything Monster truck.

Zach has been wanting to take the mini Monster truck to daycare to show his friends. Well of course that is a big no-no (1st...the thing was way too much $$, 2nd...who knows if it would return home, 3rd....it is kind of breakable). The next best thing we had to offer Zach was taking some pictures of the truck he could bring to show his friends. When we told him we could make a ramp and jump the monster truck and take pictures of it...he happily agreed.

Here are some progression pictures of the truck jumping the ramp.....

Is it for real?

We looked out the window and what did we see? Buds growing on our front trees.....

Which also means......ThunderPig is going for a drive! Did you not see that beautiful clear blue sky?

Autorama - SLC

This weekend was ThunderPig's first BIG car show!  Last summer we entered ThunderPig in several smaller car shows in cities around where we lived....this car show was BIG!  It was an indoor event at the South Towne Expo center - everyone that wanted their car to in the show had to send in an application and not everyone was accepted to the show.  It was a three day event - Dustin and Glen were at the show every morning before they opened the doors to the public to make sure ThunderPig was in perfect condition.  On Saturday Jen brought the kids so they could see ThunderPig in the show and could check out all other cars.

Probably the highlight for the kids was seeing BIGFOOT - yes, the Monster Truck!  Zach was hovering over the location where Bigfoot was at.  At one point they pushed Bigfoot out of the building so he could do a show outside for everyone - Zach was NOT happy....he made us wait at the door so when it was time to watch the Bigfoot show we could get outside fast.

 We loved seeing Bigfoot completely smash four cars!

 Yeah it was a bit lout....

 Logan had the best seat in the house - on Dustin's shoulders!

We took in as much of the Autorama as we could. At the end of the three day show there was an awards show - it lasted for several hours.  ThunderPig took some prizes!

Chuck E. Cheese

Another day of spoiling for the kids! Today we took them to Chuck E. Cheese with Grandpa Gray. Since Zach had Monster Trucks on his mind....he immediately remember the Monster Truck ride at Chuck E. Cheese. This kid has a great memory because it has been almost a year since we have last been to Chuck E. Cheese, yet he still remembers this truck.

The kids were glued to the show characters....I couldn't even get them to smile at the camera.

We should have learned our lesson by now to just go to Chuck E. Cheese to play the games....the kids won't sit still long enough to eat the pizza. They are drawn into the game room with all the loud noises, other kids, and tickets coming out of the machine. Grandpa decided to teach Logan how to play skee-ball....

Logan figured out an easier way to get the balls up the ramp....

This seemed to be the theme for the rest of the Chuck E. Cheese trip....how creative Logan was getting on finding the easiest was to win the games!


We let the kids go wild until it was WAY PAST nap time and they got cranky and whiny. I think they both passed out in the car drive home. Later tonight both Dustin and Grandpa Gray took full advantage of the kids and tickled them until they said 'uncle'.

Monster Truck Day

Not only did the kids enjoy the surprise from yesterday - we had another surprise in store for Zach today. We were able to get three of the Energy Solutions Center suite tickets from our work for the "Monster Jam" show. Dustin, Glen and Zach were going to the 2pm show. When Zach woke up we told him what the plans were for the day. He was bouncing off the walls ALL MORNING because he was so excited to go to a monster truck show. He wanted to get in the car at 8am and go to the show.

Grandpa Gray had brought another treat for the boys...he brought them each a monster truck! These monster trucks made noise and also moved on their own. While Jen made breakfast the boys were playing monster truck races on the table with Grandpa.

It wasn't much longer and Zach was again chomping at the bit to drive to the Monster Truck show. Dustin finally caved and they left so they could arrive at the location about one hour before the show started (when they opened the doors)....when they got there Zach was RUNNING to the door!

Look how in heaven this four year old was......going to a Monster Truck show with his dad and his Grandpa!

Now what is NOT to love about this?


Gravedigger was Zach's favorite.....

All three boys survived the show and came back with their hearing intact. Zach did inform us though that we needed to upgrade daddy's truck (the 4 runner) so it looked like a Monster Truck. Dustin got a sparkle in his eye hearing that!