First Sleep Over

Yesterday Gavin's friends came over for our first meeting of the "Magic Tree House" book club. They discussed the book "Thanksgiving on Thursday" and did some fun activities about how it might have been to sail on the Mayflower and everyone planted their own corn. After book club Liz and Scotty stayed for a sleep over. Gavin had so much fun. They decided they wanted to put their feet in the hot tub and then thought it would be more fun just to get on in wearing their clothes. They turned out all of the lights and scared each other by playing "Ghost Hunter" and had a party on the blow up mattress watching "Shark Boy and Lava Girl". They stayed up until 1:30am (Liz kept turning on the light and reading them knock knock jokes) and then got up before 7:00am. Some pretty tired kids today!
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 Partying at midnight...

and paying for it the next day.

Halloween and First Lost Tooth

Had such a fun Halloween. The weather was perfect, nothing like a Utah Halloween. We went to a party at Triston and Tanner's house on Saturday and the kids had a great time. They played games and broke a pinata. Gavin took the first swing and cracked it right open! On Sunday all of the kids got together again to go trick-or-treating. People sit out in their driveways with their bowls of candy. No parkas over your costumes here! Everyone loved Gavin's Indiana Jones costume. The most exciting part of the holiday was Gavin losing his first tooth. It fell out just as we arrived for trick-or treating. The tooth fairy brought $5.00. Lots of fun!
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 Tanner and Gavin

Toothless!

Many Days Later With New Son

Wow, it has been a busy week! It's like summer camp around here. We have been shopping at lots of fun little stores including Quinn's favorite, Red Hot Robot. We also found a cool candy store and spent some time at a comic book store. Quinn had to return his bear shirt for a different size we drove out to Paradise Valley where the artist, Sebastien Millon, lives and visited with him for a bit. Quinn showed him his plush Moe he designed. Sebastien thought it was great and encouraged Quinn to take art classes. We have also done lots of swimming. Sunday the boys spent three hours at Kids That Rip during their free skate. They had the whole place to themselves. They did a lot of skating as well as playing in the foam pit.

In the foam pit.

We all drove back to Salt Lake together. Quinn and Gavin were great during the very long drive. Watched lots of movie and listened to music. We stopped at the Sunset Station in Las Vegas for a buffet dinner. We had a great time and are going to miss our new son. 

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Day One With New Son

Quinn arrived today! Gavin has been so excited and is thrilled to finally have him here. We set up Gavin's room with two beds so now it's "the boys" room.

We had lunch at the apartment and then Quinn wanted to check out Brilliant Sky. They both bought "Thinking Putty".

Next it was doughnut and frozen yogurt time followed by a trip to the pool!

Then we went to First Friday. We started at the Phoenix Art Museum and took a trolley to the downtown area where all of the art vendors are. We bought some fun art pieces then headed back and looked through the museum. "The Embrace" a sculpture by Docent Carole James was a favorite piece.

Sno-cones at First Friday

"The Embrace"

Finally, dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory in downtown Phoenix. What a fun day!!

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I flew on an airplane for the first time all by myself. Then some people that told me they were my new family, kidnapped me and took me to their apartment. But then when they made me a potato I realized everything was going to be OK. Then we went to the toy store and I got some magnetic putty. Then we went swimming and I held Gavin, threw a torpedo and sat in the hot tub even though it was hot outside. Then we went to First Friday and I got a shirt with a polar bear who's head is on fire. The shirt says, "My head is on fire and I kind of like it". Then we went to the art museum and saw lots of funky sculptures and the star room that had many lights dangling from everywhere. I love Arizona. and my new family is not too bad either.

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I am really excited for Quinn to be here. I am having fun with Quinn and I ate spaghetti last night. 

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Skateboard Camp

Gavin spent the last four days in skateboard camp. He went from 9am to 2pm each day. It was a lot of hard work but he said it was lots of fun. I was amazed at how much he had improved by the last day. Today they gave awards to the campers. They announced on the first day of camp they would be giving one special award to the camper that had the best attitude. That meant always being nice everyone, being polite, listening to the teachers, always participating and doing their best. Whoever got this award would receive a new skateboard deck. And guess who was given "Best Attitude"...GAVIN! It was very cool. He was super excited.

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Gavin holding his new deck.

Gavin with his teachers, Matt and Nicole. 

I LOVED skateboard camp. I didn't even think I was going to get an award. But, I got the best award and it was a skateboard!

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More Arizona Fun

Today we had family fun at the park. We rented a paddle boat and rode around the lake. Then we had push up pops and did a little urban fishing. Didn't catch anything but the park was beautiful. Lovely day.
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It was fun and fun and mostly funnest. I felt like I got burnt when we rode in the boats. When we were paddling it was hard without my dad helping because the pedals got stuck. After that we went fishing and it was really, really fun.
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It was a great day, a beautiful environment, and fun with family.  I think that next time we need to do it at a better time of year.  It was the last day before they closed it because of the heat.  We need to do it again when it cools down and we can relax a bit more.
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Arizona Fun

We are loving Arizona. The weather is great and there are so many fun things to do. This morning we drove to Mesa and walked around the downtown area. We saw some of the sculptures including the 25 foot high "God Bless America" modeled after the painting "American Gothic" by Grant Wood. It is on loan until July and then will continue to travel around the country.

We also checked out an art gallery called the Sundust Gallery. It showcases local artists. I bought a beautiful necklace crafted by a local artist.

We also took some pictures with the sculptures outside of the Natural History Museum. Then we found Kyle's grandmother's old home. Kyle really enjoyed seeing where he spent a good part of his childhood again. After that we had lunch at YC's Mongolian Barbecue and played at the park.

It was a very fun family day!!
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Birthday!

Such a wonderful birthday!! I woke up to lots of balloons and presents. Gavin made me balloon animals! Kyle made me breakfast. Then Kyle and Gavin took me shopping! For dinner we went to my favorite restaurant, the Melting Pot. When we arrived there were flowers on the table and they took our picture and put it in a frame for me. It was a perfect day. I love my guys the most!!
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Dinner at the Melting Pot

Today we went to the Melting Pot and it was amazing. It's my new favorite restaurant. Everything is the best part of Melting Pot. We made mommy good breakfast and gave her presents. 

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Happy birthday Colleen. I love you very much. 

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Petting Zoo

Gavin and I got up early to check out the petting zoo they set up at Brilliant Sky toy store. They had lots of different animals. Gavin loved picking up the little chickens and hens. I thought the llama was pretty cool.
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First Friday Phoenix

This evening we went to First Friday in Phoenix to watch Kyle do some street theatre. First Friday is a self-guided art walk. They have lots of local artists showing and selling their artwork. Kyle is taking a community based arts class and for their final they performed on the street for anyone who happened to be walking by. They did a number of scenes the class had created about Arizona and water. Fun to watch Kyle be pretty silly. Glad it was him and not me though.
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I learned a lot doing this. It was interesting to see what the crowd would gather for and what they would walk away from.

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It was good. I liked the scene with guy digging. That one was funny.
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Bed Making

The making of the bed has become quite the area of self-expression for Gavin. And the creation of the day is...

He cracks me up.
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It's fun making up new ideas about how to make my bed.
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A Miracle!

Gavin ate everything on his plate for dinner! It is truly unbelievable.
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I can't believe it. I passed out.
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It was weird.
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Daddy's Show

Tonight we had a family evening of dinner and theatre. We ate at a fabulous restaurant near ASU called "Sucker Punch Sally's". Gavin had macaroni and cheese and Kyle and I had Navajo tacos. They had the most amazing key lime pie.

After dinner we saw "And What She Found There". This is the play Kyle created and directed with his graduate cohort. I enjoyed it very much. Significantly better than the project last year. Kyle is such a creative and skilled director. He really made a very mediocre script extremely intriguing and interesting to watch. And I love him the most even though he didn't come home from the cast party until 3:00am.
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I didn't like the play very much at all. (Kyle won't write anything else right now because he is in the middle of writing a paper about Caravaggio. If he could add to this he would say he loves his wife dearly and will never again stay at a cast party until three in the morning.)
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I thought daddy's play was funny. I loved it. I liked the character of the old woman because she made me laugh in my head. The macaroni and cheese was so good it made my head explode.
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Children's Museum

Today we got to go to the Children's Museum with Uncle Jerry. Gavin had a great time but was sad Uncle Kirt couldn't join us. Uncle Kirt and Uncle Jerry gave Gavin a year pass to the Science Center in Arizona for his sixth birthday and it is also good at the Salt Lake Museum. It has been a great gift!
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Being a construction guy.

Easter

Happy Easter! The Easter Bunny left lots of surprises. Even a special message for Gavin. We all got lovely Easter baskets and the Easter Bunny picked up a skateboard from Grandma's house and hid it in the apartment especially for Gavin. Lots of eggs were hidden as well and none were in plain sight, but Gavin found them all!
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Message from the Easter Bunny.

Gavin's Easter basket.

New skateboard!

I love the skateboard. I think the skull is pretty cool. 

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Almost Easter

Today Brilliant Sky Toys had chicks and bunnies to pet. It was so much fun. We spent over an hour playing with all of the animals. Gavin particularly liked holding the chicks.

In the evening we dyed Easter eggs and made Easter cookies. Daddy was a little confused and decorated the cookies with snowmen and holly berries. Gavin thought that was great fun and the Easter cookies became the cookies of any holiday other than Easter.
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Easter Egg Hunt

Today we had a fun Easter party with Gavin's homeschool group. The Piper's have a huge yard with lots of great hiding places for eggs. On the way over Gavin asked, "Is this going to be an Easter egg hunt, or an eggs laying around in plain site?" I told Glenda and she thought that was hysterical. She made sure to really hide some of the eggs just for Gavin. After the egg hunt Jessamyn read the kids an Easter book and they had an Easter lunch with egg shaped sandwiches.
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Natural History Museum

Gavin and I visited the Natural History Museum in Mesa today with the Kempers. Gavin was very excited to see them again after being away so long. The museum has a big dinosaur exhibit. The kids were also able to pan for gold and see replicas of Native American villages and pottery.
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Damian, Skylar, Gavin and Xander

My favorite part of the museum was the dinosaurs. It was fun, fun and mostly fun. The end. 

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Surprise Trip

We were driving back to Phoenix and arrived in Las Vegas quite late. Kyle was getting tired and decided it would be quicker to drive to Anaheim than Phoenix so we made an unexpected detour. Gavin was asleep and when we got to the Park Vue Inn Kyle woke him up and told him we didn't make it all the way home and we needed to stop and get some rest. Then we told him what was across the street. Disneyland! He was so excited. Our room had a giant hot tub in it and Gavin took a crazy bubble bath.

Sadly Gavin had a terrible night complaining of an ear ache. He woke up the next morning with a fever and we had to take him to the doctor. After getting an antibiotic and some rest we were still able to spend two fun days in the park.
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St. Patrick's Day at Disneyland

I loved it. I didn't even know I was going there. I got sick so that was no fun but I still liked the trip to Disneyland. One night in Fantasyland it was right about to close and we went on every ride because nobody was there. It was really, really, positutely, extremely fun. 

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Out With Friends

Kyle flew back to Salt Lake today so he can drive me and Gavin home this weekend. We were able to visit Joe and Shelly tonight and have dinner at Cracker Barrel. Gavin had lots of fun with Max and Amelia.
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Max, Gavin and Amelia checking out the candy in Cracker Barrel.

More Art

I love watching Gavin do his artwork. He does such a good job. His painting today was inspired by Vincent Van Gogh's "The Starry Night".
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Vincent Van Gogh

Gavin Kyle Lewis

The artist at work. 

It was pretty fun to paint. I liked it. I like my fedora. It doesn't help me paint. I just happened to be wearing it. It's like a lucky fedora. Literally. 

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