Melissa's Working Out

Melissa's been working out a lot lately and got a glamor shot taken. Check it out!

Denver Zoo

We recently went to the Denver Zoo and we got a lot of good pictures of the animals with our 10x zoom. Enjoy!

Slideshow Test

Apparently you can create Flickr slideshows right in your blog. Here is one of Carson's baptism:

Dan Crow

Dan Crow came to visit the Cross of Christ Preschool and you would've thought it was American Idol or something. All the kids knew his songs and were singing bits and pieces before the show. They even had a pot luck before the show which Dan ate at (I'm not sure if that was part of his official compensation or not). Sydney told me Dan is the funniest person in the world although I'm second.


Dan even ate at the kids table which they all enjoyed.


Sydney sat enthralled as Dan delivered his message of hope ... no, wait, it was actually a song about kissing a cow.


Dan the man warming up the crowd.


Sydney, Dan, Meredith, and Maggie all posed for a picture. For once, Sydney was the only one without her mouth open.

Sydney Swimming

We're trying to get Sydney to learn how to swim before our neighborhood pool opens up on Memorial Day because we'll probably be spending most of the time trying to prevent Bryce from drowning himself. She just finished a round of lessons at Broomfield and graduated to the next class which is hopefully entitled "Learning how to actually swim."


Here she is practicing her "big arms".


Here she is practicing her back float with her instructor which we at first mistook for another kid in the class. I'm not sure if he lost a bet or what but he has since changed his haircut.


She loves the water!

New Camera

So we recently got a new digital camera, the Panasonic TZ5. I was messing around with it trying it out and took a few pictures.


This one was from across the room with the 10x zoom and maybe because I caught Sydney off guard, she gave me a really good smile.


Bryce is playing with one of his fire trucks which he calls a "woo" because of the sound it makes. All other trucks are "bums".


Apparently I spent a little too long with the camera because Bryce got mad at me and did what 2 year olds do. Enjoy!

Tarantula at the Butterfly Pavilion

We have a place called the Butterfly Pavilion which mainly has a big greenhouse with butterflies but also has other insects and even a few marine displays. Sydney went there recently for a birthday party and got to have Rosie the Tarantula walk on her hand.


Melissa actually took this picture and I'm not sure how because the zoom doesn't work on our old camera. If that thing would have moved faster than molasses on a cold day I'm sure Melissa would have screamed louder than any of the kids.


Bryce went to the birthday party too and here he is looking at the lobster (I think).

Easter

Ok, so Easter was a while ago but I've never posted pictures. Due to my obsession with being chronological here they are:


Sydney and Bryce at Bronco Park where they spread about a million eggs on the grass and then let the kids "hunt" for them. I remember Easter Egg hunts being a little more difficult but I guess Bryce is only 2.


Bryce found an egg! (and if he looks closely there could be a few dozen more behind him)


Sydney giving us her cute pose.


Bryce has moved onto the good stuff ... the chocolate!


Sydney actually hugged the Easter Bunny without freaking out. I guess a human sized bunny is much less threatening than a guy dressed in a red suit (that's a reference to her being terrified _again_ of Santa this year).


The intrepid egg hunters returning back to the car after a hard mornings work.


Watching eggs turn colors is almost as fascinating as watching paint dry ... and it happens even slower!


I'm not sure what expression this is but she must get it from Melissa.


Easter Sunday brunch at a local spot in Boulder. Aren't we all dressed up so nice?


I think Sydney is trying to squeeze one out and Bryce is laughing at her. At least that's my first impression when looking at this picture.


Here is Bryce doing his sweet little boy stance with Sydney towering over him. Someday Bryce ... someday ...


We did a little Easter Egg hunt in our backyard too. This was much more challenging than the Bronco Park grass hunt but Sydney got them all. I'm trying to walk carefully to avoid the special treats our dog hide for us in the backyard.

Sydney Swimming

I created a YouTube video of Sydney doing her swimming lessons. Here it is:

Carson's Baptism

We were back in Iowa for Palm Sunday to celebrate the baptism of our nephew and godson Carson James Thomas. We also got to spend some quality time with Brian and Katie as well as Opa and Oma. Jayne and Jerry came out Sat night to play a little. We also had a bunch of Thomases and Fuersts come out for the main event on Sunday.

This is how our kids entertain themselves in the airport. This was actually taken in Chicago which wasn't our original layover. We were supposed to go to Saint Louis but our plane was going to be 3 or 4 hours late into Denver so they routed us through Chicago which put us into Cedar Rapids, IA at 10pm instead of 9pm.


This is Bryce in his PJs in Opa and Oma's front window.


Sydney loves to play dress up at Opa and Oma's house.


This is us with our nephew Carson. You might not be able to see it, but that is a Green Bay Packers symbol on my shirt.


I brought along Settlers of Catan and Brian and I put in many games. We tried starting one with the girls but couldn't keep them interested long enough to finish. It's actually an awesome game if you haven't tried it.


The Thomas cousins sitting on the couch. I don't know what Bryce thought was so funny but at least he was smiling!


Sydney and Grandma Jayne got some playtime on Sat night. The more I look at Sydney's smile the more I'm freaked out.


More game playing but this time it was Citidels. No one told Brian we were taking a picture, that's just his normal game playing face.


Finally a picture of Brian without a goofy face. Aren't the new parents so cute!


Here is the happy family after the baptism. Carson actually did great during the actual event. I (Jason) was holding him the whole time and he didn't even cry when I leaned him forward for the baptism. Then I got to parade him around the church for everyone to look at him. What can I say ... I'm the Godfather.


Sydney got to hold Carson briefly after church was over. You can barely see Melissa's blue sweater in the background ready to grab Carson if Sydney suddenly decided she was done holding him.


This is a classic shot of us trying to control our kids for a picture. They were both mad for unknown reasons and they certainly did not want to take a picture.


Amazingly, we managed to calm them down long enough for this shot which turned out pretty good.


Here are the god parents and uncle and aunt of Carson.


Brian and Bryce enjoyed a little round of WWF in the basement. I can't remember if the ballon survived the impact but Bryce did anyway.


This is what Bryce did basically non-stop while he was at Opa and Oma's house. Matchbox cars and more matchbox cars. It was fun to see all that stuff again that we used to play with.


Sydney mainly played with the little people stuff and did dress up with whoever she could rope into it.


We finally decided to get a picture of Opa and Oma with the grandkids right when Carson was feeling grumpy. Oh well, if you don't look close enough you can convince yourself that he is smiling, not crying.


Katie and Carson sporting one of his classic toothless grins.


The Thomas cousins sitting together long enough for a decent picture! Yeah!


Brian had Carson doing all kinds of crazy moves and Sydney thought the whole thing was hillarious. This was at the Cedar Rapids airport. We ended up saying goodbye, making everyone cry, going through security, until we reached our gate and they said "Who wants to be bumped because we're overbooked?" I said sure and they gave us two $200 vouchers and let us fly out anytime we wanted the next day. I would have paid them to stay an extra day ... suckers!


Opa and Oma saying goodbye to Sydney and Bryce at the Cedar Rapids Airport. This was before the crying that took place between Oma and Sydney. Then we had about another hour of "I miss Oma" from Sydney. I think this was our second attempt at leaving because our first attempt was thwarted by fog in Cedar Rapids and bad weather all across the midwest. Luckily American put us on a direct flight to Denver on United so we totally lucked out.


Melissa and Sydney on the plane.


Bryce and I on the plane. He was pretty excited by the carmel corn on his tray.


Last picture of us on the bus to the long term parking place where we left our car. I only posted this one because I think Bryce looks so funny. He was totally wiped out and he's got the best blank stare going. He pretty much feel asleep instantly once I started the car.