Tulip Festival 2009

Tonight we hit up the Thanksgiving Point Gardens for the annual Tulip Festival. We picked up some KFC on the way home from work, met up with Dustin's dad, and then headed to the Gardens. They closed at 8pm - so we had about 2 hours to check things out and eat our 'picnic' dinner. This places is SO BEAUTIFUL - worth the visit if you are ever in the area.

We got a kick out of Zach's reaction to the fish pond. At first he just stared...then when he realized the fish LOVED eating the food he was giving them he got excited (be sure to see the video below).

Weekend Bargin

Jen's parents scored some CHEAP last minute air tickets to visit us this weekend! Thank you very much Delta Airlines. It has been three months since they had seen Zach - he walks and tries talking now! We arrived at the Salt Lake Airport early Saturday morning to greet them (hence the SLC rant post).

The weather was forcasted to not cooperate very well this weekend - and it held true (for once). It rained pretty good most of Saturday afternoon. We had wanted to go to the Thanksgiving Point Animal petting Zoo or the Tulip festival - but both would not be enjoyed very much with the rain and 50 degree weather. So what was the next best thing? The Timpanogoos Harley Davidson store :) Jen's dad rides a HD - and Dustin desperately wants one....so the HD store is like a shopping mall - but for MEN. Most of all we had a kick of watching Zach check out the store.

Big wheels for him to touch and turn. This kept him entertained for a good 10 minutes.

In the service department then had a mini-HD that kids could ride. Zach wouldn't get off this thing! It would 'stop' and he would make noise trying to get it moving again. A few times during our trip at the store he would walk back to the service department and try and get on the bike himself.

Saturday evening Dustin and Mike (Jen's dad) headed to the Real Salt Lake soccer game - the Krotosky's helped score us some free tickets (thanks again!). The stadium was finished last October and holds 20,000 people. Luckily the rain had stopped!


The men had a blast - the Real Salt Lake apparently dominated the whole game and won 6-0. Dustin even came home with a mini soccer uniform that he bought for Zach to wear. I expect we will be hitting up some more games this summer!

Sunday was another miserable weather day - this day was dedicated to chick flicks and shopping. Yup - the girls headed to the movies and then Kohl's. They actually spent more time shopping in Kohl's then they did going and watching the movie. The women came home to find Zach sitting in his highchair eating thin mint girl scout cookies while the men were glued to the TV watching the discovery channel.


It was nice to have an 'excuse' to stay in side and just hang out and catch up on life. Janice and Mike headed back to California early Monday morning. We sure hope Delta has some cheap fares again REAL SOON! Zach tried to stow away in the carry on luggage:

SLC rant...

Side note about the SLC airport - what is up with no one monitoring the pick up area? There have been MULTIPLE times we see people just parked there for long periods of time and the security people don't even care - isn't that a federal 'rule' someone is breaking? We have been to several airports in the past three years and we have to say that SLC is the MOST relaxed one of them all. So what did we do when we arrived at the airport today? Drove right on up to the pick up area and waited for Jen's parents to come out of the airport - our total wait time was at least 15 minutes and that whole time not ONE security personal was around. We also took these pictures of the signs around us:

Believe it or not these two signs were next to each other. Don't they contradict themselves? If you aren't suppose to be parked or waiting then how can you turn off your car and be 'idle free'?

Next phase.....

Well - looks like we are headed for our next challenge:

Happy Secretary's Day to Jen

Jen's work profession isn't a secretary...but her married profession is one! Early on in our marriage Jen was quick to point out that she had turned into Dustin's secretary. Who pays the bills, books the trips, makes the appointments, buys the birthday/Christmas gifts and then mails them, etc.....yup you guessed it - JEN! Dustin's response to all this? He gladly honors Jen every year with flowers on Secretary's Day. Today he had the flowers waiting in the car when we left work - Jen totally spaced it that today was the day so it turned out to be a great surprise!

15 month check up

Today was Zach's 15 month visit to the pediatrician. He was a happy little camper as always. Here are his stats:


Height = 32 inches; 75th percentile
Weight = 23.6 pounds; 25th percentile (he's been at 23 pounds for 6 months now...)
Head = 47.5cm; 50th percentile


So he is getting tall and skinny. The doctor still doesn't seem concerned that he had stayed at the 23 pound mark for almost 6 months now - he just says Zach is active!


Side note....about 5 weeks ago he had this mark on his finger that blistered - it looked like a burn but it wasn't painful when we touched it. So it scarred up. This is what it looked like:

Well today he has ANOTHER mark like that on the same finger just more towards the middle section of the finger - it still looks like a burn but it isn't a burn. So we will nurse it with some antibotics and see how it goes! The same finger today:

Austin - Day #5

Today was our last day in Austin - more like a half day because our flight left at 2:30pm! We met up one last time with some of our good friends for some Texas BBQ at Rudy's. Oh brisket how we have missed you the past three years!




Thanks to the Bigbees, Megerles, Pinzons, Ross, and Kwang for joining us for our send off....


Luckily all our flights were on time (I love Southwest) - Zach had fun "walking" on the moving walkways in the Denver airport for our layover.

Austin - Day #4

Day #4 - Today we were out driving around and it seemed like every street corner had someone asking for money. We had forgotten this was "legal" in Austin (or maybe it is just outside the city limits). We had to sneak in some pictures!

They work in "teams"

Check out the haul...I really don't think they are hungry
Also with all the rain Austin had been getting, that meant almost 100% humidity....Jen's hair was having a bit of fun....curls!!!


This evening was Veronica's wedding! Our entire trip was planned around attending this wedding. Veronica Martinez and Eugene Thomason were married at the Star Ranch Golf Club in Hutto, Texas. This place was gorgeous! Even though it had rained most of the trip it cleared up for the wedding. Check out these pictures!



We had a blast at the wedding - lots of old friend to catch up with. Most of these people had not met Zach yet. I can't remember the last time we had been to a non-LDS wedding. Veronica and Eugene knew how to party! Here are some of our favorite shots:










Congrats Veronica and Eugene!

Austin - Day #3

Day #3 - Today it rained like CRAZY in Austin. Major thunder, lightning and rain...I think there was even a tornado watch at some point. We hit up a new burger place called "Mighty Fine" then headed over to the Scott's house to chill for a bit. Brent and Dustin went to college together and both ended up getting jobs in Austin upon graduation. They have five kids and we had been there for the birth of the first four...the last one was born a month after Zachary!

Next stop...our friends the Atherton's! They have a baby girl a few weeks other than Zach. She was such a cutie...and SMART! She was talking way more than Zach.

We only had a few short hours to hang out and catch up with the Scott's and the Atherton's because next on our agenda was POKER NIGHT!!!

When we were living in Austin a bunch of Jen's co-workers would get together for poker night about once every month or so. We even headed to Las Vegas a few times with this crew! Now several of us have had kids and some of us moved away (us) so the poker nights aren't as frequent...but they make sure to have one when we are in town visiting!

Kwang introducing Zach to different kind of "bottle" - don't worry it was empty

All the kids LOVE Kwang

The crew

Susan and Jesse

We were party animals - out until 1am!!!! Wahoooooooooooooooooo!

Austin - Day #2

Day #2 - Today we met up with some of Dustin's former co-workers for lunch and an all you can eat Italian place called "Canoli Joe's" - dang good food. I think the lunch ended up being 2.5 hours - no complaints by us! Unfortunately my pictures didn't turn out too good, here is the best one.

We had a bit of time to kill so we decided to check out our former house and see how our old stomping grounds had "grown". The house we owned in Austin was our very first house. It sold rather quickly after we put it on the market (two days!) to a Californian that turned it into a rental property. We were amazed that in three years the bushes had NEVER been trimmed and were completely overgrown and blocking the view of the front window. Also the trees got HUGE!

Next we headed back up to North Austin to hang out a bit with the Megerle's. Zach was thrilled again to have a few more boys to play with and MORE toys...we aren't just talking little toys....we are talking BIG TOYS. Jeff has a dirt bike...and a kids dirt bike....when Zach saw the dirt bikes he ran over to them and was checking them completely out. He even got a ride:

Dustin went for his first dirt bike ride as well!

We finished up the evening with dinner at Red Robin with the Megerle's and the Scotts. Kids eat free all the time at Red Robin in Austin....so between the three families there were seven adults and seven children....and all the kids did eat FREE!

Austin - Day #1

It has been almost three years since we moved from Austin, Texas - and almost two years since our last visit back! Our good friend Veronica was getting married....so of course we had to make the trip out to see everyone and witness the wedding. As with all trips....to many people to see and not enough time to do it all!

Day#1 - Plane ride from SLC to AUS! This was by far Zach's longest plane ride...almost 3.5 hours with the stop in Phoenix along the way (got to love Southwest Airline routes). Of all days - TODAY Zach decided to wake up at 5:30am....so his whole schedule was thrown off - and we managed to get him to sleep on the second leg of the flight.


We stayed at Kwang's house for our stay....he graciously picked us up from the airport in his rented mini-van. We were going to meet up with some friends in South Austin for dinner at Chuy's (they put a new one in down in south Austin after we moved....boo). Since dinner was planned for 7pm and by the time we got our luggage and hit the road from the airport it was 4pm. We decided to head the Pinzon house and hang out before dinner. They have an awesome backyard with lots of boy toys that Zach loved. All the kids LOVED to play with Kwang....Zach included (check out the smile on his face!).






Dinner at Chuy's was AWESOME....Jen got her "Chuychanga with queso" fix.

The life of a Dad...

Dustin cracks me up sometimes....I caught these on video today....

I was laughing out loud over this:



For those of you that truely know Dustin...you wouldn't be surprised over this next video:



Using Zach's high chair like a hotrod and cruising Zach around the house..
Not a surprise in this house.  ;-)

Easter

We had a wonderful Easter at home this year. Dustin's parents were still with us since we had just returned from our Idaho trip (previous blog entry). The Easter Bunny brought Zachary a basket full of toys...his favorite were the balloon and the large plastic eggs.


Family shot

Grandparent shot

The day turned out to be beautiful so we decided to head back to Hogle Zoo. More animals were out this trip. :)