Salsa

Everyone that knows Dustin knows that his belly is part Mexican - he LOVES to eat spicy food and is a skilled homemade salsa maker! We came across a bushel of perfectly ripe tomatoes and discussed what we could do with them.....can SALSA of course! Jen has canned once - about 5 years ago back in Texas she canned peach jam. Dustin has never canned. So here is how it went:

Step #1 - make the salsa

Step #2 - heat up the jars....funny story - we didn't have a normal pot big enough to cover the large mason jars we had. Dustin solved that problem by getting out the huge pot from his turkey fryer!
Step #3 - fill the jars

Step #4 - put the lids on and boil the jars again
Step #5 - pull the jars out and let them cool
Now we have enough salsa to last us this winter!

Who is that?

We found a praying mantis on our house this afternoon - we decided to see what Zach would do to it....

Yes - he blew on it. He didn't want to touch it, he wanted to blow on it! Dustin even picked it up and Zach kept stepping backwards and laughing....

So back to the side of the house the praying mantis went!

Circus

Ringling Brothers & Barnum and Bailey Circus was in Salt Lake and we decided Zach was old enough to experience the circus for the first time! When we arrived the were allowing people down on the floor prior to the show to check out different acts. It was funny to watch Zach's expression change as he saw things. At first he didn't want anything to do with anyone - I guess it was a bit overwhelming......we couldn't even get a smile out of the kid! We had fully planned on forking out the $$ for the light sticks that spin ($20-25!!!) and the circus cups with sno cones in them ($15!!) and cotton candy ($10!!) - but Zach really didn't act interested in any of it....so we saved the cash....I am sure his interests will change by next year.




Once the show began Zach was calm as could be - we actually thought he was going to fall asleep....so we did what any good parent would do to keep their kid awake during their first circus experience - PUMP THEM FULL OF SUGAR. Yup - Zach downed soda, fruit snacks, popcorn...that seemed to do the trick. We think Zach's favorite act was the tigers - he has been roaring like a tiger all afternoon....and chasing our cats around the house.

Next year - we decided we will watch the circus from the company suite....gives Zach (and us) a bit more running around room if he gets antsy.

BYU Football

Go COUGARS Go!

Some co-workers were getting tickets to the BYU vs. CSU football game a few weeks ago and we decided to jump on the band wagon - we wanted to take Glen and Zach. Little did we know at the time they were buying tickets in the CSU visitors section...I guess we should have seen that coming since they were CSU alumni...but as it turns out that was the only place where tickets were still available in the whole stadium. Ironic - but yes, we did attend the BYU vs. CSU football game today and we did sit in the visitors section. Every time that football would get intercepted by BYU, the CSU quarterback get sacked and another touchdown for BYU would happen.....we would just look at each other and smile.

Most of the game had to be spent standing up...because apparently CSU students don't understand that the seats they were standing on were actually for sitting on. You would think that if your team was 20 points behind you would WANT to sit down....apparently not for CSU students. This was our seated view of the game:

Final score 42-23 - Cougars dominated.

Visit from the bro

Dustin's brother Jaren had some time off from work this week in Colorado and decided to road trip it out to Utah to hang out with us for a few days!! Jaren owns a SWEET RED MUSTANG and made the 8 hour drive in style. I think Zach's mouth fell open when he saw this car pull into our driveway...the whole time Jaren was in town Zach would hover around his car and examine the rims.


The boys spent most of the time tinkering with the 1958 Chevy Truck in the garage - they pulled off the rest of the front side panels, the inside floor boards, seats, radiator and fan.
We had a great time hanging out with Jaren...and hopefully he will make another road trip out to see us again SOON!

Weekend Project

What consumed our weekend? Uh....maybe the 1958 Chevy truck restoration?! Yeah - that was definitely it! Since Dustin and his dad picked up the new chassis last weekend, they spent this weekend tearing apart the "old" 1958 Chevy body. This Saturday was the truck bed. It was quite fun to watch the progress - Jen's parents were both in town so Mike was able to help out with the truck as well.

Of course there are tons more pictures - and probably a more "technical" explanation to the process - that is why you should check out Dustin's restoration blog -
http://1958thunderpig.blogspot.com

and our photo gallery -
http://graywaves.smugmug.com/Thunder-Pig-Restoration

License to drive

Surprise!

Jen's Dad has been in town all week on business - and her mom decided to fly in for the weekend as a surprise to Jen! Dustin did a good job "convincing" Jen to take the afternoon off to do some relaxing.....after lunch Jen's mom came walking in to the house. The ladies went and got much needed pedicures, massages and of course we squeezed in a chick flick as well ;) Zach enjoyed having Grandma and Grandpa Twogood in town as well!

Let the 1958 Restoration begin!

Dustin and Glen just got back from a road trip down to San Bernardino to pick up the new chassis (frame) for Thunderpig - they have been waiting for SIX MONTHS for the frame to finish. Dustin has a blog he created and will update for the Thunderpig restoration - check it out!

Labor Day

How can you NOT like a paid day off from work!? We tried to make the most of our labor day this year. Since Dustin’s 1958 Chevy restoration project is just about to get started full swing – most of the day was spent preparing the garage. Massive amounts of $$ were spent at Lowe's earlier in the week and now it was time for the projects to get finished. Dustin did it right and made the wife happy by surprising Jen with tons of flowers to re-plant in our pots from the Lowe's trip.

Dustin and Glen also installed florescent lighting in the garage – it is awesome.

We had to top the day off with a swim in our neighborhood pool. Today was the last day it would be open for the season. Since Jen still wasn’t feeling too good from the cold, she opted to be the camera woman while Dustin, Glen and Zach had some fun swimming.

Zach happily started jumping from the side of the pool too!

Antelope Island

Today was a boys day out. Just north of Salt Lake there is a place called Antelope Island. Every year they have a hot air balloon and kite festival. We had all planned on going bright and early to see the balloons launch on the last day. Jen had been sick with a cold and decided to stay home and sleep while Dustin, Glen and Zach headed out on the trip. When the camera came home – there were no pictures of hot air balloons. Apparently they only had 4 of them launched and they were already landing them and taking them down when the boys arrived at 7:45am (advertised schedule said the balloons launched at 7:30am and were suppose to be up all day!). Kind of a bust for hot air balloon watching, but the boys did end up buying Zach his first kite and showing him how it works.

Antelope Island is also just next to the great Salt Lake – the area was beautiful….take a look at some of these shots.

Also…apparently they are BUFFALO in that area TOO! Who knew buffalo existed in Utah, just outside of Salt Lake???

Zach got another airbrushed tattoo – they didn’t have dinosaurs, but Dustin picked out a gecko and we have just been calling it a dinosaur. Zach LOVES it….he walks around lifting up his shirt sleeve to show everyone his “dinosaur” and then her roars like a dinosaur.

On the drive home they all enjoyed some smoothies……this is what happens when men are in charge of a 19 month old and no mother or woman is around. Oh well, they had fun and Zach was as happy as could be for entire day!

Boys will be boys...

They are FINALLY building a house across the street from us. We have mixed feelings....our view of the mountains and golf course green will now be partially obstructed...BUT we will no longer have golf balls land in our front yard! Every day when we get home from work we take Zach out to see all the big machines. He loves touching every part of them - we thought this little bobcat fit him perfectly!

Professor Gray

Surprised?! We were! Jen was approached by University relations at work last spring about potentially helping teach a freshman engineering seminar class at BYU. The Electrical and Computer Engineering department was on a mission to help recruit more students to the major and felt that if they had a "real engineer" help teach the introduction to the major class - maybe the students could get a bigger picture of how they could/would fit in to the world of Electrical or Computer Engineering. Being that Jen was an alumni of the department and a happened to be a female....everything just seemed to fall into place.

So today was the first "day" of being addressed as Professor Gray. The class has 250 students enrolled. Jen is co-teaching with one of the professors of the Electrical and Computer engineering department. She teaches a 50 minute lecture once every two weeks. They don't dive deep into much engineering stuff, just mainly an overview class to give freshman an idea of things they could do if they pursued a major in Electrical or Computer Engineering. The college WANTS Jen to mix in as much "real life" engineering examples into her lectures...shouldn't be hard as she has NINE YEARS of working experience!