Halloween Night

We had a great time Halloween night! We dressed Zach up in his dragon costume and hit a few houses down our street. Zach loved being in his costume - so we let him stay it in as long as we could! Some pictures:


Isn't Zach cute?
Such a ham!
what is this that I have?
oh yeah - goodies for me
A quick note on the candy....Zach dug through all the candy in his trick-or-treat bad and picked out TWO three musketeer bars to chew on. He apparently is a fan of the silver packaging!

Too much candy and too late of a night!

Uh oh....

We are in for a world of hurt......Zach's new "trick":

Pumpkin Carving

Tonight we did our pumpkin carving. Looking around the house we had FIVE pumpkins! Seems like every place we went Zach would find a new pumpkin to admire so we would end up getting it. Zach looked a bit disappointed his pumpkin friends got cut all up.

We ended up carving our two big pumpkins. One turned out to be a bat...the other a pumpkin face. Be sure to vote on who has the better carving skills and made the pumpkin face! Our finished products:

Pumpkin Patch

As a kid Jen's family used to always go to a pumpkin patch to get pumpkins for Halloween every year. Pumpkin patches are getting harder and harder to come by these days! After some googling - we found one in Sandy, about 15 minutes away. We hit up Mabey's Pumpkin Farm for some fun on Saturday afternoon. We were quite impressed with this place...normally pumpkin farms only have grown one "type" of pumpkin...at Mabey's they had several different varieties to choose from! Who knew there were more than one type of pumpkin?!

The weekend before Halloween and still lots of pumpkins to choose from
Zach tested this one out and decided it wasn't the right one for us
Oh yeah...this is the one....it is almost as big as Zach!
3 generations of Grays!
Ready for the wagon ride to the car

LOL - got to love online "tests"

Zach's 1st haircut

Zach started to show signs of a mullet. We couldn't have that! They opened this new childrens haircutting place in town called "Cookie Cutters" - so we took him in today. At first he was happy...he got to sit in a car and watch Finding Nemo....then the clippers came out and he wanted to have no part of it. The poor stylist was hurrying as fast as she could so she would be done with the clippers. When she finished Zach stopped crying and continued to watch Finding Nemo. He even smiled when she handed him a balloon. He has been playing with the balloon all day!

Halloween Party

Jen's group from work had a costume Halloween party tonight. It was the perfect excuse to dress Zach up in his cute little dragon costume. Dustin went as the Grim Reaper and Jen went as a cow (old Halloween costumes we had on hand).

The funniest quote of the evening was from one of the little girls at the party (probably 5 years old), she was dressed as a cow girl and the whole night she kept telling Jen, "you're my cow!". We had a great time visiting with everyone and their families. We thought the best costume was worn by Jen's boss -

Now how could you NOT want to work for someone like this? :) Thanks to the Krotosky's for hosting the party! We can't wait for the next one...even if it does involve costumes!

tooth #4!!

They keep coming! Now Zach's front left upper tooth has made its appearance! Zach now has his two front upper and lower teeth. We are ready for a break from the runny nose!

Pimp my RIDE

As soon as Dustin got back from his Moab trip some "upgrades" apparently were necessary for our eight year old 4 runner. We new it was time for new tires, shocks and rotors....a $1500 expense that we gladly were expecting to pay - especially since it would need to be done before the winter. Well....then Dustin found a shop to do the work and the owner had a sweet deal on some rims...something Dustin has been DYING to upgrade on the 4 runner for quite some time....and of course if Dustin got some sweet rims he needed to upgrade the size of the tires being put on the 4 runner.....and.....a lift kit....and....when they were doing all these "upgrades" to our vehicle it was discovered our rack and pinion steering needed to be replaced....three days later and well beyond the orignal $1500 here is Dustin's new PIMPED OUT RIDE!

Jen has been told several more off roading trips will occur in the near future!

Guy trip - MOAB!

Dustin joined a group of co-workers for an off roading adventure in Moab. There were three cars - our 2000 4 runner, a 2008 Jeep Wrangler (pimped out of course), and a 2009 FJ cruiser. The driver of the 2008 Wrangler (who just so happens to be Dustin's bosses boss) is a die hard off roader - he did the impossible climbs. But our 4 runner and the FJ kept up pretty dang good. Some posts of Dustin's conquests:

tooth #3

The front left tooth has finally decided to make an appearance! Poor Zach has snot pouring out of his nose and drool pouring out of his mouth - good thing we buy kleenex in bulk!

Update on our sick baby

So Sunday night Zach slept a bit better - he would only wake up every 1-2 hours. He isn't barking like a seal when he coughs as much as Saturday night. He still has a fever ~100 degrees that tylenol/motrin wasn't able to break until of course this morning at 9am when Jen took Zach to the doctor (the nurse gave me a funny look when I told her that I took his temp at 7:30am at it was 100 degrees, she said "well it is 98 degrees now"). It was the happiest I have seen him in two days....IN THE DOCTORS OFFICE! The doctor confirms Zach does indeed have croup, but looks to be in the recovery phase..which means probably another day of a fever and cold like symptoms for the rest of the week. Zach seems to like the grape flavored Pedialite - so we give him 2oz every couple of hours. We haven't been successful getting him to eat/drink anything else at this point in time. On a positive note - Zach has gained 1 pound in the past 3 months. Jen had been worried ever since she took Zach to the doctor two months ago at 7 months of age when we thought he had an ear infection (just teething!) and he hadn't gained any weight since his 6 month checkup....so it is good to know our boy is still growing!

Anniversary Weekend

We decided to celebrate our 7 year anniverary with a vacation in Park City - yes it is only about 45 minutes from our house, but neither of us had ever been so we figured "why not!". We booked a condo to stay in back in August, thinking middle of October would be perfect because all the leaves would be changing colors. Well.....would you believe the 1st snow of the season at Park City happened to occur during our trip? Yeah - so the trip was a bit colder than desired but we made the best of it! Here is our play by play:

Thursday - we loaded up the 4 runner (with way too much crap according to Dustin) and hit the road about 3pm for our short 45 minute drive. The skies were blue and the colors as we drove in to Park City were beautiful - the leaves on the trees were yellow...in another week they probably would be red. We stopped breifly at the Park City Factory Outlet so Jen could run into "Childrens Place" and buy a hat and gloves for Zach - we packed away the ones he used last year and weren't sure they would still fit, so $10 later:

Styling eh? We drove through "downtown" Park City scoping out a place to eat. We were surprised at how dead this place was for a Thursday afternoon. Finally we settled at a place called Red Banjo Pizza - the oldest resturant in Park City. The pizza was AMAZING! They recommended squeezing lemon onto it before you eat it....pretty dang good. Try it next time you order a pizza! Funny side note - we asked if they had a highchair Zach could use, the waitress looked at us for a second (what would you expect a 9 month old to sit in?) and went in the back. She came out with the oldest highchair we have EVER seen...seriously, I think it was made before either of us were born - but it worked. So now that our bellies are full and we have left overs in tow...we decided to check into our condo. The place was called Park Station and it was literally at the base of Main Street in Park City - the best place to stay if you wanted to walk around the downtown area. We checked in and look what Dustin had waiting for Jen:

Two dozen beautiful red roses for our anniversary. Zach even enjoyed smelling them! (Thanks again babe!). We spent the rest of the evening getting situated in our 2 bedroom place. Zach LOVED it...probably because it was something new. He was all excited and looking around. Another funny side note - the picture they had over the fireplace mantle was of a bear. They had track lighting that light up directly over the picutre. When we turned on those lights Zach just stopped and stared at the Bear - he did this the whole trip! Here is what it looked like:

Zach refused to go to bed - we couldn't figure out why and assumed it was that he was just so excited to be someplace new. So finally around 10:30pm he fell asleep (normal bed time is 8-8:30pm).

Friday - We chilled most of the morning, by the time we showered and were ready to go somewhere for breakfast Zach decided he needed his morning nap...which ended up being 2.5 hours...so around 1pm we finally headed out - a bit late for breakfast. Today we planned on checking out the Olympic Park in Park City - if you live in the area and haven't seen this place you need to - it is pretty cool. Right now they are in between seasons (summer time they train and jump off lifts into a pool, winter time they use the snow) so we didn't get to see any athelete's in training - we will have to head back next summer to see it again. Some photos:

The view from the road

Zach all bundled up - it was pretty cold.

Ski jumps into a pool - used in the summer months.

The staff preparing the runs for the winter (snow expected the next day)

Dustin on the "bobsled" track

Future Olympian!

Not sure how people do this one! Very uncomfortable!

The 2002 Olympic medals - each one was handmade...cool job to have!

Some more of the Park:

We finished up the evening by hitting up Blockbuster for some DVDs (expecting some indoor time with the snow that was suppose to hit that evening) and Albertson's for a few snacks. At this point Zach was coughing pretty deeply ocassionally...ate about half the normal about of food/drinks he usually takes in a day....but fell asleep at 8pm no problems.

Saturday - Zach slept in until 8:30am (he's normally up by 7am). It started to snow about 9am. We sat inside watching it snow from the window - Zach loved sitting the white stuff fall from the sky. We chilled inside for a few more hours and then (when it stopped snowing - they got less than an inch and it melted pretty quickly) decided to walk up Main street to get some lunch and do some shopping. Dustin had been eyeing the Harley Davidson store since we arrived...so now was his chance:

Lunch at the hungry moose grill
This Moose matched Jen!

Most of the shops on Main Street were Art Gallery's (you can tell what type of shopper they cater to in Park City!) - so we didn't end up buying more than one Harley Davidson T-shirt for Dustin and some cholocate goodies from Rocky Mountain Fudge. By this time we could tell Zach was starting to feel worse. He still wasn't eating/drinking much - so we decided to chill inside and watch our DVD's we rented and light a fire:

Saturday night turned out to be the longest night we have had in a long time. Zach started coughing like crazy...so much he started sounding like a seal barking (yup - croup!). He didn't sleep all night just kept coughing/crying/moaning - we took shifts trying to confort him.

Sunday - Zach still isn't sleeping and now has a major runny nose along with his deep coughs. The poor kid feels horrible, you can just look at him and see it. We try giving him bottles and he just thows everything up - he coughs so hard it makes him throw up. Dustin did manage to make Zach smile by showing him some snow and letting him taste it!

We head out to get some lunch at this place called Good Thyme (highly recommend it) and stop at the store to get some fever strips (ironically this was the ONLY trip we have been on with Zach that Jen did not pack the thermometer) and Pedialite. Zach at this point has fallen asleep so we decided to sneak in a bit of shopping. We found a World Market - something we haven't seen since we left Austin....we love this store and stocked up on exotic foods (Indian curry and European chocolates!). We head back to the condo - check Zach's temperature...yup almost 100 degrees even while he is pumped up with Tylenol. So we decided to cut our trip 1 day short and just head back home - where Zach would be most comfortable in his own surroundings.

Poor sick Zach

Sad Jen - leaving our vacation early

Some of the left over snow on the drive out of Park City

How can two types of Huggies be SO DIFFERENT?

So I am torn. Lately I have been buying the Huggies Snug and Dry for Zach - mainly because Costco sells them in bulk. Well, Zach has this new "thing" he does where he tightens up his legs as stiff as he can get them when you change his diaper. It makes it extremely difficult to get the diaper to fit correctly. I came to the conclusion that maybe the diaper wasn't cut as good as it could be - so I bought a small package of Huggies Supreme "natural fit"...supposedly more contoured at the legs. I have to say the "natural fit" does fit his body better (even when he stiffs his legs) - but THEY STINK - literally. No joke. As soon as Zach does only a little pee pee the diapers start to smell. I have NEVER had this issue with the snug and dry version. Has anyone else had this problem?