Mason

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Thu 22 Jul 2010

The Desert

Posted by Jason under Heidi , Holidays and Vacations , Jason , Mason , Whitney
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One of the highlights of every trip to Idaho is the trip to Craters of the Moon. We have been going there for many years and always have fun looking at the rocks and playing in the caves. This year we made a slight detour to EBR-1, which is where nuclear power was first used to power a lightbulb (which is still on display). It is a lot of fun and the kids had a good time there. They got to play with the manipulators and pretend they were handling radioactive waste. It was a pretty interesting place and fun to go to when there aren’t a lot of other people there.

Finally, we finished our trip by eating at Pickles Place, where you can get deep fried pickles. I made the kids try them but neither were terribly impressed, which I was OK with because then (more…)

 

Fri 16 Jul 2010

Camping at City of Rocks

Posted by Jason under Heidi , Holidays and Vacations , Jason , Mason , Whitney
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On our recent trip to Idaho, the first activity after arrival and resting was to go camping at City of Rocks. We had never been there before, but Steve and his family go all the time and they really like it. Both Mason and Whitney like to rock climb–or at least practice rock climbing–and were dying to try the real thing.

We got there and got set up and then went to work having fun. Mason and Seth and Caleb tried to stick smoking sticks down vole holes in the ground to “smoke them out” and very few square inches of skin got burned in the process.

We climbed up to the top of a big pile of rocks, where I was sure that at least one broken (more…)

 

Mon 31 May 2010

Mason goes to war

Posted by Jason under Mason
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I think that Mason would like to have been born several hundred years ago. He loves to watch the Deadliest Warrior on TV and has spent many hours “killing” cardboard boxes, trees, plywood and anything that isn’t specifically off limits. Although then he wouldn’t be able to listen to Bon Jovi. So after he got done smashing an old cabinet to pieces, he wanted to burn it. We have had bad experiences with bonfires in the past, specifically a gas-fueled fireball that shook our windows, so this fire was small.

Mason had found a piece of steel square tubing and thought the fire would melt it. I didn’t think it would, and when he wondered how they did it in the olden days I told him they used a bellows to pump more air into the furnace and make it hotter. So he came back with an air pump that we used to use to pump up air mattresses, and I found a hollow tent pole to focus the air into the fire. We got the coals white hot and were able to smash the steel tubing pretty good. We don’t have a sword yet but maybe one day we will.

I also added some other pictures of Mason. I went into his bedroom to turn off his music and found that he had figured out a neat method of holding his iPod. Also, I don’t understand how he sleeps with so much junk in his bed.

 

Wed 26 May 2010

Mason’s Pinewood Derby

Posted by Jason under Mason
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Mason had his first Pinewood Derby recently. We were very excited about it. He planned out what his car was going to look like, and we made it look very cool. He painted it all by himself, and even added a Lego driver and passenger. The J and the M on the hood are for Jason and Mason.

 

Sun 7 Mar 2010

Great Falls Park, Maryland Side

Posted by Jason under Heidi , Jason , Mason , Whitney
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A few weeks ago we decided to go on an expedition. We have been to the Virginia side of Great Falls National Park several times but had never been to the Maryland side before. So we took a day and drove up.

The weather was pretty nice; it wasn’t too hot or cold but was kind of windy. We walked down the path by the canal and by several locks. Eventually we veered off the path and down into the rocks by the river. The kids (we had Abby that day so there were three kids) had a lot of fun climbing and scrambling on the boulders.

Eventually we found Billy Goat Trail. It is almost 5 miles long, and can be quite tricky in places. Of course Mason loved it, but the girls did pretty good as well. Whitney had a pretty bad fall when she was heading down a slippery slope of rock, tripped and almost went facefirst into a rock but somehow she stopped herself.

We ate a little lunch while taking a break about halfway through the trail and made it back to the car, which was about 1 miles too far away, cause they kids were really dragging. Between the Billy Goat Trail and the other trails we went on it was a lot of walking even for me. Pictures follow the break.
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Sat 30 Jan 2010

Gingerbread Houses

Posted by Jason under Mason , Whitney
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This is a pretty old topic, but the pictures are funny. The kids wanted to build gingerbread houses, and Heidi and I helped them. We had girls against boys, and I think if you look at the pictures it will be easy to tell who built which ones. Me and Mason started off relatively normal, but we soon felt the need to make certain additions. We stuck a giant beetle on one side, built a face on the other (and made the face eating someone, complete with blood) and then made other animals and Lego people surround the house. We had an “M” for Mason on the roof and a vicious dog.

Whitney and Heidi’s was more traditional, with a beautiful blue lake and a cute dog and lots of pretty icicles. It also had a very nice wreath over the front door.

 

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