Trick or Treat

Vampire Micaela

(she bought this pretty red wig to go with the costume and had a blast playing with it, at least until she got her "extensions" which is what she is wearing in the picture :)

Jon is a skeleton (the pants are somewhere in the depths of our storage unit) and I am a tourist (my camera was being used to take this picture)

One of the carnival games at CVC's Light the Night Carnival

A really cool, really long slide

Micaela and I both liked the Ferris Wheel, it went around really fast

A view of the carnival from the top of the Ferris Wheel

Jon was really snotty(sick) and miserable to start with, and then I let him get a bloody nose on his first ride... oh well.

Isaac made the perfect Robin. This is the only picture I have of him standing still, he was jumping and leaping all over the place

One of the many bounce house things

A better picture of Jon

After the carnival we came home and went trick or treating with a girl from Micaela's class who happen to stop by the house just as we were leaving

A neighbor's house, best decorated place on the street (ours came in second)

Our house with ghosts and two huge blow-ups and candy bowls that grabbed at your hands

Pumpkin Patch Kitchen

Kurt requested some pictures to show his parents, so here they are:

My mom and I had fun taking Jon to the Zoomars petting zoo/pumpkin patch. Thanks Kristen for the cute clothes!

He actually lifted this pumpkin and carried it over to me

Shoving the carrot into the bunny's mouth

A concrete bunny

Goats are fun

This was a few too many goats for Jon's taste

I needed to take pics of Micaela and the kitchen, so I combined the two :)

Being goofy

She wanted Grandma to see the hair "extensions" she bought with her allowance.
They match her "natural" color :)

In progress, but much better than it was

Kurt's hanging coffee pot

U2

Okay, so Mari said I need to blog about U2 in order to hear about Mrytle Beach, so here it goes in one long, run-on paragraph...


So this U2 concert sold out before the tickets went on sale to the public. Kurt has a U2.com membership, but had forgotten to renew it a few years ago, so he was still considered a "new" member and didn't get priority status. What that all means, is that we had to find tickets on ebay/stubhub/etc. and we had to pay 3 times the face value. But how often do you get to see your favorite band so close to where you live, with willing babysitters nearby? So we got tickets at a "relatively" cheap price for how close we were to the stage (row 9). We had heard that parking was going to be a nightmare, so we left super-early for the show. I was able to give Kurt a driving tour of L.A. (Rodeo Drive, Sunset Blvd, Hollywood Blvd) before we headed over to Pasadena. We got there early enough to get parking near the stadium and we spend the next few hours just hanging out. It was too hot to be out in the sun, so we set up our lawn chairs under a tree near a water hazard (parking is on a golf course) and I took a nap while Kurt played games on his phone and listened to the band doing their sound checks. It was very uneventful, but I think that's what made it so nice. There were huge lines to get into the Stadium, but Kurt and I found a gate that was not be used and walked right in. Our seats seemed great. We were at the same height as the stage and really close to the VIP tunnel, but one of the legs of the set blocked our view of the main stage. The camera on the other side of the leg happened to have extra equipment, so we really couldn't see anything. So that's why our tickets were so "cheap". But it was a 360 tour, so there was an outer stage which was used a lot and the backstage which was also used a lot, so we saw a fair amount of the action, but next time we'll choose the higher seats with a front view of the stage. From the videos online, it was a totally different (and better) show from the front. Anyways, Fergie and the Black Eyed Peas opened and they sounded great and they got the crowd pumped up. Kurt was really excited when Slash from Guns N' Roses came out for a guest appearance and played Sweet Child O'Mine. It was awesome. I have a video that I'll post down below. In between the opener and U2, Kurt and I played "spot the celebrity". We were near the VIP room so we saw a ton of people, but only got a few good pictures. It was fun. Finally, U2 came on and they were great, they sound just like they do on their CDs. The stage was impressive and it was just an awesome show. We left during the last song and made it to the car pretty easily and had only a small wait to get out and get home. I'll post some pictures, but it won't really do it justice.

Before the show started, see how the camera/plastic shield block the stage :(

Us

Fergie and the Black Eyed Peas up on the screen

All the pictures turned out blurry because using a flash didn't work, but you get the idea

I think this was during a tribute to Aung...something (see here)

The stage was very cool

That's Bono, he was closer than he appears

Now it's your turn to play spot the celebrity - it's not easy!

Explosion

Doesn't everyone's office look like this?

Lots of Pictures

Here are some pictures of Jon, Micaela, baby Olive, and the occasional Higerd girl.

Jon wanting to be more like his dad

Jon wearing the shirt grandma weaver bought him

Maybe he wants to be more like grandpa

He figured out how to climb the ladder in the playhouse on his second try

Lets hope he doesn't crash like his dad

Micaela and her little niece

Dad and Jon at the Fair

Mom is a saint for taking these two tweens with her

I didn't want to hold/contaminate Olive so I settled for being in close proximity

Dad and Olive

Mom and Olive

The proud dad

Caroline and the most patient dogs ever

Summer Vacation

I kind of forgot to take pictures while we were in Virginia, but believe me that we all had a great time. Micaela had play-dates every day and even had two sleepovers! Kurt and I got to play poker twice and had some excellent dinners thanks to our friends. We helped Georgia set up for Will's birthday party which was quite the success. Will and Jon didn't really know what to make of each other, but Jon did enjoy all of Will's toys. Georgia has a funny video of Will singing and playing his guitar while Jon is playing the drums. I'll try to get it off her and post it here later. We certainly miss living in Virginia.

While Micaela really enjoyed seeing her friends in Virginia, Jon is definitely more into the Pennsylvania lifestyle. As soon as we got out of the car ran into the yard and started playing. Jon has been very easy to entertain between wandering around the house and playing with his cousins trucks, swinging under the tree, playing in the small play structure, riding his cousins tricycles, and just running around in the grass. It helps that everyone has been sleeping well here and that the weather is just perfect right now. And don't worry about Micaela, she just LOVES her Grandma and Pappy and all the attention they give her. She's been playing in the woods, picking berries, climbing trees, playing in the 'crick', and she spent her first night tent-camping with her Aunt Kristen and two cousins Nicolas and Kendell.

Aside from a brief encounter with a bat, I'm having a great time as well since the kids have been so easy to take care of. I haven't really gotten any schoolwork done so when I get home in August I'll have my work cut out for me, but I work better under pressure anyways :)

I don't really feel like providing captions, maybe Mari will help -

We bough Jon some matchbox cars and now he is learning how to make car sounds, can you hear him spitting? :)

Mari's Pictures

So I guess Mari forgot that she was going to blog about Sesame Street Live, or maybe she just wanted to wait until she had the pictures, either way, here they are. I chose the pictures where it looked like they were both being perfect angels, but who knows what really happened. Good job with the elmo outfits Mari.




The next series of pictures are of Caroline's cool cousins. Apparently she likes hanging out with older kids.

Micaela and Caroline at Disneyland

Caroline and her cool cousin Beth


Isaac showing Caroline his videogames

This is definitely payback. Mari got these yellow polka-dot high heels for Micaela the last time she was out here (Micaela asked me to get them for her and I refused). All I heard for the next few days was clack-clack-clack. She wore the stupid shoes everywhere and asked me if she could wear them to the park, the grocery store, etc. I finally gave in and she stopped wearing them only after falling off the little 6 inch concrete wall we have in the back yard. Now it's Caroline's turn to wear them and make Mari's hair go grey.

I like these pictures of the kids because they look so calm and it seems like they play together so nicely. We all know it doesn't exactly work like that, there is a lot of pushing, a lot of "sorry anabelle" hugs, and lessons to be taught in sharing all around, but it is definitely more fun with more kids (especially when they are someone elses).