I spent the weekend with the boys. It was just me & Erica with Nathan & Spencer. Cassidy had a dance competition in St. George and Cali went to Disneyland with her ‘father’ for a week of fantasy, fun and overindulgence.
I took some pics this weekend too. Enjoy!
Nathan got a mood ring
Erica got a pedicure
She’s beautiful
I got Erica some roses
The weather was great so we went to the park
Me and the kiddoes made a visit to the Clark Planetarium in downtown SLC for some recreation and a little education. They have a gift shop with all kinds of crazy contraptions and science geek toys to capture the fancy of young and old alike. They have mood rings too.
The kids took a ride on the moon gravity simulator unit. I love watching them laugh, I can’t really think of anything better in life. Have a look at some pics from the day.
Cassidy doing her best Ozzy Osbourne…”Shaaa-ronnnn!”
Spencer kickin’ it old school on Mars
Spencer kickin it old school on the Moon (he gets around)
Nathan discovering an interest in the planets
Spencer geeking out
Some gravity contraption – very cool!
Spencer strapped in
Cassidy’s turn
Nathan takes a spin around the room
A view from their house that night while dropping them off
So my kids’ new step-dad is a mega redneck, cowboy, welder, tobacco chewing, pickup truck driving, four wheeling enthusiast. There’s nothing wrong with most of it except that with that enthusiasm comes a natural tendency to speak with a drawl, obsess on monster trucks and listen to country music. Fortunately my kids have taken to the fun stuff like riding quads but have inherited enough sense from their dad’s side of the gene pool to know that country music and monster trucks lead to tooth decay and domestic violence charges.
I picked them up at their mom’s house last weekend and they were riding their quads in the vacant lot next to their house so I took some pics. It was pretty cool watching them, I get chills watching these little guys grow up, they friggin’ rule!
Nathan
Spencer
Nathan & Spencer
Nathan getting at least 3 inches
Nathan
Cassidy
How you doin’? It’s good to be back on the blogosphere. I took a bit of a hiatus to focus on life issues. They seem to have cleared up with a little help from my friends. My house is closing Thursday and the proverbial attached strings are finally being cut.
We had an incredible Thanksgiving weekend with the kids. For the first time in a long time I was able to have them for somewhat of an extended stay. They were with us from Wednesday through Sunday and every moment was precious. Erica isn’t exactly used to a house full of chaos and exuberance but she did an amazing job of adapting and being a wonderful ’step-mom’ (in quotes because while she plays the role very well, it is titular only at this point).
We even had the neighbors over on Friday night for a couple adult beverages and a rousing game of Beyond Balderdash. I really like them. They brought their kids over and we sent them upstairs and downstairs while we socialized and the night culminated in a sleepover for the little ones. They had a blast and we all made some new and better friends out of it.
We spent a lot of our weekend putting together our new acquisitions from IKEA. Beds, tables, chairs, picture frames, clocks, lamps, rugs, bedding, light fixtures…we splurged and decorated the shit out of our new home. Cali got a new bedroom fit for a princess and Cassidy got to move to her own room in the basement. Next weekend the boys get their new bunk bed!
Now for the pictorial. We made a mess with finger paints this weekend. The kids got their creativity on and globbed gooey finger paint all over their hands, their feet and the floor. We let the art dry and framed it for them to hang in their bedrooms. They are thrilled and so are we as our home comes together.
The kids all got together for the annual October pumpkin massacre. We had such a great time! Cali had her first shot at actually doing some damage, she poked the tools into any and every pumpkin surface she could get her hands on.
Spencer and Nathan carved their very own designs this year but poor little Cassidy was sick. She made an effort but had to bow out about half way through her design because she started feeling sick so her enthusiasm was a little low this year. Get better sweetheart, we love you!
I can’t describe the gratitude I have for these sweet children in my life. They make me so happy and give me so much to live for and look forward to.
Thanks Erica for the awesome photos!
The kids got their boogie on this weekend in the front yard. What a bunch of amazing little people they are. It’s so inspiring and fulfilling to watch them have so much fun together. Of course I took some grin-grin, snap-snap while they danced.
Halloween is upon us once again and that means one thing…time to make messes with pumpkins. Since it’s early in the month of October, and if we carve pumpkins now they will rot before the 31st, we decided to paint miniature pumpkins instead. So, we hit the local Walmart for some craft items and tiny orange squashes and brought them home for an evening of artistry.
Cassidy, Spencer, Nathan and Cali
Diving into the paintbrush wash bucket
Cassidy’s screamin’ blue meanie
My little angel baby
Cali likes to put her whole self into her work
My pumpkin – not gay at all
Cassidy’s clown
Spencer’s bengal pumpkin
Spencer’s other masterpiece
Cali’s offering to the humanities
Cassidy’s jackolantern (minus the lantern part)
I guess this would be a plethora
Nathan used the entire pallette
Cali’s calligraphy
Cali’s hand and footprint to capture our moment
Happy Halloween!
My last post may have left the impression that I’m some tree hugging, bleeding heart animal rights activist. While I do like the animals I’m not exactly up for running naked through the streets of NYC to save Tiger penises from becoming aphrodisiac soup in China.
I had a good time watching the monkeys and birds, the tiger was cool, I saw a white crocodile, one of only ten in the world, and I ate nachos.
I like the zoo. It was fun. Here are some pics, enjoy!
The day began with heartfelt laughter
Nathan looking for what to do next
Nathan and Cali riding the bronze tigers
My heroes
The perfectly toasted marshmallow
Like, which way did he go man?
This is one of only ten white, not albino, crocodiles in the world
Cali, getting a peek at the aminuls
Dumbo
Snapped on two
I love giraffes!
Giraffes also urinate
Grooming monkeys
‘Nother monkey
They say this guy is between 30 and 40 years old
The dude abides
The tiger was awesome. He was roaring and hungry but behind a fence
Thanks for stopping by.
I’m not a big fan of the State Fair. I don’t really like the stink of livestock and I get terribly ill spinning around on the mechanical death traps but I do love to take my kids. The corndogs are pretty tasty too, all deep fried and heart-attacky.
People watching is a treat at the fair, especially on Sunday afternoon. I’m not sure why that is but it seems that the dregs of society crawl out from under their rocks on Sundays more than any other day of the week to make their public appearances.
I would love to have taken their pictures but since there is really no other reason to photograph them, except to capture their interestingness (add that to the dictionary), they would probably have just pounded my goofy ass. So, I took pictures of my favorite people instead.
Nathan & Spencer
Cassidy trying not to smell the horses
Spencer & Cassidy
Eyeballing the grub
Fish on!
Hold the onions
Cheese!
Tasty beverages
The obligatory livestock shot
Pony rides!
Hold on tight!
The marksmen
Award winning hops!
Award winning onions
Um, kids made stuff out of vegetables
Time to go home
Burned out!
Yours truly
Fair enough!
I received news yesterday that my ex wife is getting married. This is not news per se, as I have known about her engagement for quite some time. She has been waffling back and forth on a date. First it was in December, then it was to wait until next spring, then it was as soon as they get a house together, then yesterday I received word that they are hitching it up next Wednesday (I’m sure the pressure she felt from my petition to modify the divorce decree had absolutely nothing to do with it…). There’s nothing like a good sandy foundation upon which to build a third marriage.
You’d think people could learn from their experiences and observations through life and play things more cautiously than before. Evidently some can not.
When we got married she was taking her shot at a second marriage — it was my first. I was blind and idealistic…and naive. I quickly adopted her two daughters (and she quickly rejected her ex husband and every member of his family and kept them completely out of the children’s lives) and less than a year later we had our third daughter together. I was in way over my head and there was tension and stress from every direction weighing me down and I had no escape. I was overwhelmed and alone in this family of 4…and it grew to a family of 7 before the last chapter of this tragedy was written.
Suffice it to say we did not do well and I had a hard time adjusting to being a father/step-father and taking on the responsibility of providing for a family with a stay-at-home mom after living my life as a single man for 30 years. I had adjustment troubles with my adopted daughters, even though I love them dearly, and the wife, consciously or not, drove a wedge between us at every turn by taking sides in our struggles. I’m sure that is common in these hybrid type families.
We have been divorced officially for 15 months and she is getting married for the third time, joining our 5 kids and his 3 kids together into a Brady Bunch style family of maniacal proportions. Incidentally he is the same age I was when we first got married…which makes him 14 years her junior.
I wonder what she believes she is getting into. I feel sorry that she hasn’t learned much through her tragic life other than to run from problems by heaping new ones upon her shoulders. She has been through 2 miserable marriages and divorces already (not to mention the childhood she endured) and is quick to jump into yet another, more stressful dynamic with open arms and fanciful expectations. I have my opinions, which I shall reserve.
I hope for the best as this family construct is going to mold my children in their formative years. I saw the effects of marital stress and the results on my older daughters as we jumped unprepared into our holy union. I was beyond unprepared and I will say that her new chump, I mean husband at least has a solid career and some parenting years under his belt.
There is a silver lining in all of this, other than me being completely rid of that Jezebel. Alimony is a thing of the past.
