Thanksgiving with the Thomas'

Here is a montage from Thanksgiving with the Thomas'.


The Thomas family faithfully watching the Thanksgiving day Packer game ... which they won against the Lions.


Post Thanksgiving celebration at the Nice cabin near the Wisconsin River. We mostly just basked in the glow of the Packer's win against the Lions.


Sydney with her Oma (German for Grandma).


Sydney with her Opa (German for Grandpa).


Sydney and Oma playing Twister. I think Sydney won.


Zoey wanted in on the Twister action. This is her resting between games.


The Thomas boys chillin out on the floor after some serious present unwrapping.


Sydney really liked Quincy although I'm not sure he returned the favor. She was dressed up in a little Kimono that Oma got for her.


Christmas with the Ortners, a Thomas Ortner tradition going back for over 2 decades.


Bryce was pumped with Vic treated him to some horsey rides on his leg. Of course then Sydney wanted to try and the rides got progressively shorter until I was roped into service.

Thanksgiving with Grandma Jayne

Here is a montage from Thanksgiving with Grandma Jayne in Saint James.


Sydney in one of Melissa's old clown costumes. Very appropriate for her.


Jayne was wheeling Sydney and Bryce around in Adeline's walker. They loved it!


Bryce with his great grandma Adeline.


Bryce got a haircut from Sarah while we were there. He was very still but I think it was due to fear more than anything else.


Sydney and Bryce both liked watching for the Saint James trains.


Bryce loved the tractors and construction equipment across from Jayne's house. Finally Jayne and I took him over there so he could see everything up close. He was especially into sitting on the tractors.


Bryce and Sydney with their great grandma Adeline. I guess we must have told Bryce a funny joke before taking this picture. Or perhaps someone farted. He thinks that is hilarious! Ahh, it's nice having another guy around the house.


4 generations of women.


Sydney and Bryce playing in her sleeping bag. They're just ALWAYS so sweet to each other ... yeah right!

Steph LOVES Dogs!

When we were back in Saint James for Thanksgiving, Ryan and Steph came over to visit. Our dogs seemed to know how much Steph loves animals and took it upon themselves to play with her. Hilarity ensued and here is a little photo montage of the event.


Zoey initially tried to bother Ryan but discovered he didn't give as good a reaction as Steph.


Here Melissa is trying to tell Zoey the plan of attack. Notice Steph cowering in the background.


Steph was being a good sport but Zoey was looking for an opening in her defense. You can spot her in the lower right looking to pounce.


Just like on the plains of the Serengeti, a stare down ensued. Zoey prepared her final assault.


This is the aftermath of the attack. Zoey got a tongue right in Steph's ear.


Not to be outdone, Kozmo jumped in to play.


Like a mother bear protecting her cubs, Steph kept Kozmo at bay with Dylan in her lap.


We finally managed to get the dogs out of the picture and got a nice family photo of the Reids.

Always a fun moment when Steph "the animal lover" gets together with our dogs.

Thanksgiving 2007

I just posted 45 pictures from Thanksgiving. I'll write more later but it's 11:30 and I'm done for tonight. Click here for the slideshow.

Bryce and Sydney at Krispy Kreme

I've finally sat down to upload some photos and found some fun ones from before Thanksgiving that I wanted to post. Here is Bryce and Sydney at Krispy Kreme where they enjoyed watching the donuts being made. They also enjoyed eating them although usually that just consists of them chewing off the sprinkles and leaving the rest for me to eat. Oh well, that's what Dads are for!

Bryce's First Birthday

I had a little time on my hands tonight and decided to edit some video. So here is Bryce's First Birthday party. Almost (but not quite) one full year late. It was pretty funny for me to go back and see how little he was and what an enormous mess he made out of his cake. My favorite part of the video is when he tried to drink his milk cup with everything covered in cake. Enjoy!

Halloween is fun!

Halloween is fun!
Originally uploaded by jason_m_thomas

I recently posted some Halloween pictures. This one was taken at the end of the night when the spirits were still high and the sugar was still flowing through the veins. The crash afterwards wasn't as well documented but it was inevitable. We convinced Sydney to be a princess after we ran out of time trying to find her first choice costume, a bee. Bryce was a monkey which I believe we borrowed from Aiden Potter. He initially wasn't thrilled about standing on stranger's doorsteps but soon got the hang of it as the candy was being passed out. He insisted on being handed the candy so he could personally put it in his pail. The few people who actually put the candy in his pail for him got some blank stares and disappointed looks. A few people just hold out the bowl which he took to mean load up! Sydney had the routine down although she needed regular reminders to actually say "trick or treat." I wore my Packers stuff to "scare" all the local Broncos fans who were still in shock over the Monday Night Football game. I did not, however, paint my face, nor will I do so in the same manor ever again. Looking back at the pictures I don't know how Melissa let me go to the game looking like a sickly drag queen but it was my first face painting experience so I guess live and learn!

Broncos Packers Monday Night Football!

Jason as a crazy Packer fan
Originally uploaded by jason_m_thomas

We attended the awesome Bronco Packer Monday Night Football game at Mile High Stadium last night. Yes I painted my face like a crazy person and Melissa actually went to the game with me like that. We drove down early with Paul and Jill Olson and some other Packer friends (and that Bronco fan in the background) to meet up with more Packer friends for some tailgating. Car after car pulled up filled with Packer fans who all came down to tailgate. It was amazing how many Packer fans were at the game. It was practically a home game for the Pack. A few times the Packer fans were able to get the "GO PACK GO" chant going above the crowd noise until the Bronco fans started booing and drowned us out. Melissa scored some AWESOME tickets from a friend on the 6th row on the railing next to the tunnel where the Broncos run out on the field. We felt like we were practically on the field when the plays were down in our end. I had a MNF cameraman filming me for most of the first half but apparently I didn't make it on TV. If you haven't heard, the game was incredible and came down to a literally last second Broncos field goal (in the end zone we were sitting in) to put the game into overtime. The Packers won the toss and on the first play, Brett Favre threw a touchdown pass (again into our end zone) to win the game. The place actually erupted with cheering Packer fans even though the Broncos were stunned silent. What an amazing game! Click here to view the stunning slideshow.

I'm an Uncle!

My brother Brian and his wife Katie just had their first child, a boy, Carson James Thomas. His email to me:

"It's a Boy! His name is Carson James Thomas. (Carson is Katie's maiden name and James is our favorite book of the Bible and Katie's grandpa's name). Carson was 8 lbs. 10 oz. - I say "was" because he's a sow. He's 19 1/2 inches long. I have no idea what this means but I was told it's important to include in this email for those who aren't as clueless as me about babies. He is not fussy at all and looks a lot like . . . a baby as far as I can tell. It's up to you to tell us who you think he looks more like. One thing we both agree on is that he's the cutest baby we've ever seen and we also agree that we have no bias.

Katie was a champ and did the whole thing without meds. I got an epidural for the sympathy pains. We are a VERY happy family and excited to come home to Healy. Thanks for your support and prayers - they were felt and appreciated. Here are a couple pictures of the newest version of the Thomas family with the life-changing upgrade "Carson 1.0". Enjoy the photos check out our website soon (later this week) for some more pictures and hopefully a video. (www.briankatiethomas.freeservers.com)
--Dad"

Sydney ladybug face paint

Sydney ladybug face paint
Originally uploaded by jason_m_thomas

Here's a funny picture of Sydney with ladybug face paint. Our neighborhood had a fall fair where she won some prizes and got her face painted.

Melissa running Denver half marathon

Melissa running Denver half marathon

Melissa running Denver half marathon
Originally uploaded by jason_m_thomas

Well Melissa successfully finished her first Denver Half Marathon! The picture of her running is pretty low quality but I took it off the Denver Marathon website. The other picture shows her shirt which she wore in memory of Kenna. As you can see it was pretty wet during the race and quite cold as well. Due to my mis adventures in parking I showed up to the race about 5 minutes after Melissa had already finished. I guess it serves me right for thinking she was that slow. Since it was so cold and rainly we didn't want the kids out for very long so I was trying to time my arrival perfectly. Anyway, Melissa did great and proceeded to shake uncontrollably once we got to the car. I guess a few hours in the rain at 40 degrees will do that to you. She's now going to scale the training back and let me run a little with her.

Christmas Picture

Goofy Picture Attempt

Christmas Picture Attempt
Originally uploaded by jason_m_thomas

Every year in the fall we go out into the beautiful Colorado wilderness and try to take a Christmas picture. We do this partially to enjoy the scenary ourselves and partially to make all our relatives in the midwest jealous so they'll want to come visit us. This year we went up outside of Nederland to the Indian Peaks Wilderness area to attempt to photograph a 4 year old, 18 month old, and two golden retrievers all by using the self timer on our camera. This usually leads to some hillarious shots and half the time we have to force ourselves to stop laughing when the timer goes off. You'll notice how attentive the dogs are in this picture. This was achieved by throwing rocks out near the camera in the instant before the timer expired. I guess I was a little off because they weren't looking exactly ahead but close enough. Click the photo to launch Flickr and check out some of our other attempts.

Bryce getting his first haircut

Bryce getting his first haircut
Originally uploaded by jason_m_thomas

Bryce got his first offical haircut (they actually cut all his hair not just the bangs) back on Sept 20th so I thought I would post a picture. There are few more in our Flickr photostream if you're interested. He was quite the trouper just sitting perfectly still the whole time. We went to this kids hair place where they let him watch the intro to Cars the whole time. Kids these days ...

Bryce and Jason reading an Exciting book

Bryce and Jason reading a book
Originally uploaded by jason_m_thomas

This picture was too funny not to write about. Bryce gets so pumped when we read books about tractors, fire trucks, contruction equipment, etc. I don't know what little boys did before construction equipment ... look at the big horses I guess. For fun I like to pull up YouTube videos of construction equipment, race cars, explosions, etc. All the stuff even 18 month old boys can appreciate. For starters check out this promotional video for Hyundai Construction Equipment.

Sydney's Soccer

Sydney and her coach
Originally uploaded by jason_m_thomas

We enrolled Sydney in Westminster Soccer this fall for her first time participating in a team sport. She is on the Dolphins team and her coach is the guy wearing the black shirt in the background. I was nominated as the assistant coach which basically means I sit with the subs on the sideline and don't let them run out on the field when its not their turn. They play 3 on 3 girls with no goalie on a 30 yard field. Sydney is not really into it that much and just sort of runs around with the pack around the ball. This last game the ball actually went through her legs as she was running and not paying attention. Two weeks ago one girl on the other team got "hurt" and by that I mean she fell while running and started crying. It was pretty cute because Sydney was the only one of the girls to sit down with her and try to comfort her. I guess she's a lover not a fighter. It seems like each team has about one girl that's really into it and will score all the goals. Our team doesn't really have that girl and we've been beaten pretty handily even though no one keeps score. We've got until the end of October before the end of the season so hopefully we'll teach them to be a little more agressive and make some goals. Go Dolphins! (Never thought I'd be saying that being a Packer fan. Speaking of which: Go PACKERS! 3-0 BABY!)

Dog Day at the Bay

I just created another YouTube video of Dog Day at the Bay. This is an annual event at the local pool where they open up the pool for dogs to swim on the last day of the year. It was held last weekend and we've been going for the past few years. Kozmo and Zoey love it although I think Kozmo likes it more for the people interaction than for the dog interaction.

Bryce's Head Wound

Bryce with his head wound
Originally uploaded by jason_m_thomas

Bryce has been going in and out of our screen door for a while now. He managed to tear the screen away from the frame to give himself a nice spot to move the door back and forth. Hmm, I wonder why we have so many flies in the house. Anyway, he recently took a nice fall off the patio steps and roughed up his left eye. He didn't cry too long and as you can see by this picture he's back to all smiles.

Sydney's First Day of Preschool

Sydney sad at first day of preschool
Originally uploaded by jason_m_thomas

Sydney was pretty sad on the first day of preschool because she wanted to have the same teacher she had last year. Click on the photo to view more pictures from the first day because she warmed up pretty quick once her friend Aiden arrived.

30th Birthday Party

Jason, Erin, Jamie, Zach, Paul
Originally uploaded by jason_m_thomas

This was the second of two BBQ parties we had during Labor Day weekend. The first was a neighborhood party which included a fireworks show put on by another neighbor. He had some nice air burst shells which were all contained in a single box that once lit, would shoot 3 shells, one after another, into the air. All was well until one box had the shells burn through the side. The first shell went off in the air as planned but the second shot into a crowd a people in the street. The third hit over the garage where everyone else was watching. Luckily no one was seriously hurt but the neighbor that lives behind us had a nice burn on her leg and a few other people had minor burns.

The 30th Birthday Party BBQ was to celebrate Jason turning 30 on July 27th and Melissa turning 30 on Sept 15. It was mostly people from our bible study group and a few other close friends. After the two parties I had eaten my fill of hot dogs for a few days.

Boz at BVCC

Boz came to Boulder Valley Christian Church a little while back and I shot some video of it. Here is the condensed version consisting of Sydney dancing and Bryce trying to get into trouble. And yes I do teach her all her moves!

We're on YouTube!

I just bought iLife '08 and one of the new features in iMovie is publishing to YouTube. So my first experiment was to take Sydney's 4th Birthday clips and photos and create a video. Check it out!

The Idaho Springs to Georgetown Half Marathon

Family at Idaho Springs
Originally uploaded by jason_m_thomas

Well all the training has finally culminated in the Georgetown to Idaho Springs Half Marathon on Saturday morning. Melissa left at 5:45 with our neighbors who were also running the race in order to get the registration packet and make the start time of 8am. Me and the kids slept in and left at 8:15 so we would be there in time to see Melissa finish. We struggled to find a parking spot but did managed to get there to see her finish. Notice her bib in the picture says 3676 so there was a large group of runners there. Many more than the "around 200" that her friend told her (probably so she wouldn't be nervous). Anyway she finished really well even though it was quite hot throughout the race. We walked around the Idaho Springs football field afterwards and I finished her free O'Douls with a little help from Bryce (see the picture in Flickr). For a cool map of the route check out what her Garmin produced with a little help from Google Maps: Route Map.

Ball SW Picnic at Boondocks

Racing at Boondocks
Originally uploaded by jason_m_thomas

The Ball SW department picnic was at Boondocks fun center this year. They organized a dinner for us and then we had unlimited use of the facilities which include mini golf, bumper boats, go karts, laser tag, batting cages, and tokens for video games. Sydney had a lot of fun on the bumper boats and go karts. We also had fun blasting each other in the laser tag arena. There's another picture in my Flikr photostream of Ryan Melton and I playing Dance Dance Revolution. Towards the end of the evening we found this game with a revolving table containing plastic dinosaurs. It cost two tokens and you had to move this dinosaur mouth down and catch the dinosaurs which you then won. I'm not a gambling man but I can see the addiction factor because I was cleaning up at this game. A few times I grabbed two dinosaurs and Sydney, Bryce (and Melissa) were all cheering for me. I ended up winning 11 dinosaurs and gave a few to a coworkers kid because I had every species! It may sounds pathetic, but it was an exihilarating end to a great night.

Rocky Mountain National Park Pictures

Flowers - RMNP
Originally uploaded by jason_m_thomas

Back when Opa and Oma came to visit they stayed in Estes Park. Melissa and Bryce had already flew out to Minnesota when Sydney and I decided to visit them in Estes Park. We all went up into Rocky Mountain National Park to Bear Lake. We took a few pictures at Bear Lake when I decided to run up to the Nymph, Dream, and Emerald Lake while Opa, Oma, and Sydney walked around Bear Lake. I took the picture of this flower at Dream Lake and started towards Emerald Lake when I turned around because of threatening weather. I starting running down the trail passing all the tourists as it started to rain. I made it back to the car where Opa, Oma, and Sydney were waiting just as it really started to pour. Enjoy the pictures!

Sydney in the Midwest

Sydney spent this last week playing with Opa and Oma in Iowa and Grandma Jayne in Minnesota. My parents drove out for a week at Estes Park and then last Sunday took Sydney back to Iowa with them. They stopped overnight in Omaha and went to the zoo Monday morning which was a nice way to break up the trip. After that Sydney slept until Des Moines (so did Opa) and then they made it to Independence where Sydney promptly disappeared into the basement to play with toys. I guess she did more of the same on Tuesday and then Wednesday Opa and Oma took her halfway to Saint James where Grandma Jayne picked her up. When they arrived in Saint James, she promptly went down in the basement to play with barbies. Again came more of the same on Thursday with a side trip to see great grandma. Friday Sydney and Jayne flew to Colorado where a happy homecoming was had by all. Apparently Sydney forgot she had a brother, because shortly after the happy homecoming she stole Bryce's toys away from him and knocked him down. Timeouts ensued and by today (Sunday) she's pretty much back under control. Yep, a few days with the grandparents can get a kid thinking they're faultless but we've straightened her out.

Tomorrow she goes to her third vacation bible school of the year. I'm begining to think people believe we're just trying to get rid of her for a few hours during the week. Actually she loves going and it's not like we drive around looking for the VBS signs. One was our church (BVCC), one was her preschool (COC), the last one is where she goes to MOPS. Fun for her and a nice break for Melissa and Bryce. Hang in there guys, she goes back to preschool in a few weeks! Just kidding.

4th of July Fun

Sydney fighting fires
Originally uploaded by jason_m_thomas

For the 4th of July we stayed in the neighborhood. They had a kids parade led by a Westminster fire truck and we managed to convince Sydney to ride her big girl bike. I think that was a mistake though, because I ended up pushing her most of the way around the neighborhood. After the parade the firemen set up the hose and let the kids take turns "operating" it. Sydney was really into it and loved sitting in the firetruck. They bought fried chicken and drinks and everyone else brought a dish to share which made quite the feast.

That evening we went to Ryan and Amy's house to help Ryan celebrate his birthday. Later we decided to head to the Broomfield Commons soccer fields to watch the fireworks. The weather was iffy with some strong wind and weird clouds but we went anyway. While we were sitting there we could see Westminster and Thornton start their fireworks but nothing from Broomfield. Eventually everyone started leaving so we did too. About half way home, BOOM starts the Broomfield fireworks. Thanks for the notification Broomfield. :-P What a bummer, but at least we were able to see them from home if not feel them. We finally ended up at another neighborhood party where Sydney got to try some sparklers. After that it was time for bed.

Building a House in Alaska

I spent from June 28th till the morning of July 4th in Healy, Alaska helping Brian build his house. We did a lot of framing while I was there and I learned more than I ever expected about the process. One of the guys said, "I'll have to bring you out the next time I build a house." I think he said that because he knew I was working for free. In any case, I think it's safe to say that most of my framing days are behind me. When I got back all my coworkers asked how my "vacation" was. I said, "What vacation? I was framing a house!" I also learned that when you tell anyone outside of Alaska that you're visiting Alaska, they automatically assume you're going on a fishing trip. Anyway, it was fun to see Brian and pregnant Katie and help them build the place they'll be living starting this fall. Brian has an amazing grasp of the building process considering this is his first house. However, its a good thing Katie's step-father John is in charge because at one point he and I built an interior wall to his bathroom without a door! Brian set up his tripod for each day of construction and has taken some great pictures of the process. Check them out at his blog here.

Release of the Butterflies

Butterfly in Purple Salvia
Originally uploaded by jason_m_thomas

Sydney got a container of live caterpillars from Aiden for her 4th birthday. They come in a jar with food and just eat until they form cocoons by attaching themselves to a little paper disk at the top of the jar. We then moved this to another mesh container about the size of a beach ball and waited for them to hatch. Unfortunately, hatching takes about a second so we missed the process of hatching for them. Eventually we let them loose in the garden by unzipping the top of the container. Most just flew away but the one in the picture hung out and let us take a few pictures of him. Butterfiles are fun!

Bolder Boulder Pictures

Melanie and Melissa
Originally uploaded by jason_m_thomas

I've finally posted some pictures from Melissa's running of the Bolder Boulder. She had a great time and a great run, beating her goal pace by running less than 8 minute miles. I don't know how she does it but it was fun to watch from the sidelines with Sydney and Bryce. We were joined by my buddy Matt and his kids Corrine and Jack who were watching Melanie who is with Melissa in this picture and some of the other action shots. After the race we walked around with some of the other 50,000 runners and got some free popsickles for the kids and other schwag. We then went back into the CU football stadium for the memory day tribute where skydivers landed carrying the flag from each branch of service and the American Flag. This was followed by the national anthem and a jet flyover which Bryce and Sydney really liked. They both totally crashed after that because we all got up at 5am in order to get Melissa to Boulder for her 7am start. The race she's really training for, the Georgetown to Idaho Springs half marathon, is coming up soon on Saturday, August 11 at 8am. We'll keep you posted!