Calgon, Take Me Away!

Every night before bed, after Ben is fast asleep, we put Ben's toys away and pick the house up so that the house is clean for the next day so that... Ben can throw his toys all around the house and we can then pick them up before we go to bed the next night... What do they say about insanity? Doing the same task but expecting different results?

 

Toys Toys Everywhere!



Sophie's Birthday Party

This weekend, we went to Sophie's 2nd birthday party which was at the coolest pumpkin patch ever and to top it off, was a costume party. How much more fun can be had... seriously? Not much! Big Ben (no longer Baby Ben) rocked his dragon costume in a major way.

  What's the best part of any birthday party? You get one guess... CUPCAKES, of course! Ben, like every other red blooded 15 month old went nuts over the cupcakes with loads and loads of orange icing. Jeff's sweater, on the other hand, did come out the worse for wear.

 This pumpkin patch had a maze made out of hay as well as an actual train. Ben didn't realize how much he loved the train until about 30 seconds before it was time to get off. Of course, pulling him (literally pulling) off the train was real fun and didn't create a scene at all...

 So... to appease the litte dragon, Jeff wheeled him around the pumpkin patch in a wheel barrel. He quickly forgot about the miserable train de-barking experience... until of course we had to take him out of the wheel barrel.

 The Drogins were also at the party and Ben loved Will's astronaut costume!

Dinner with Lynde & Emerson

Lynde & Emerson came to dinner this past Friday and Ben had so much fun with his older buddy. Emerson is 2 years, 3 months and Ben is nearly 16 months so Emerson is quite a bit advanced compared to our little man. They had a great time building a fort, running around the house eating cookies and chasing poor Sophie Lou. But, the highlight of the whole night for the 2 boys was playing 'King of the Mountain' on a very good spirited Jeff!

Spontaneous Visit to the Pumpkin Patch

Wednesdays are typically Mom & Ben days but this Wednesday, I had to run to one of our listings and do a bit of work. Ben tagged along and his treat for being such a good worker with Mom was to go to his favorite park and then to the pumpkin patch at 'The Farm.' Grandma and Grandpa were in the area so they popped over to visit the little rugrat for a few minutes and help him pick out a pumpkin.

The best part about 'The Farm' is that they are an actual farm and have a little petting zoo area for kids with bunnies, chickens, goats and ducks. Ben loved playing with the goat who, although very nice and attentive, was probably just looking to get a nibble on Ben's banana.

 Ben's favorite mode of transportation is to be wheeled around or carried... he must think he was Cleopatra in a former life. Well, being on the pumpkin patch is no different so the little King of Sheeba took to his throne (ie the cart) and got wheeled all around the pumpkin patch.

 First stop... climb all over the hay...

 When it was actually time to pick out a pumpkin, Ben was much more interested in figuring out how to make the cart work. Seriously, Ben... it's not like we're in a pumpkin patch or anything?!

 After much ado, Ben finally picked out his pumpkin! Well that and he now knows everything about the mechanics of carts.

We have a birthday party this weekend which is also at a pumpkin patch so stay tuned for more festive, Halloween pictures. We hope everyone is having a great week! Bolgers

Halloween Comes Early for Jeff Bolger

Halloween came early for Cisco, Jeff's company. It is quarter end on the real week of Halloween which means they'll be working pretty hard with no time for a party. Jeff's building always goes all out for Halloween with a parade, costume contest, lunch etc etc. So this year, his group decided to dress up like super hero smurfs. Jeff is the Green Lantern Smurf. The funniest part of this whole 'thing' is that he'll be driving home from San Jose (1.5hrs) tonight with his blue face paint so you can imagine the looks he'll get from the other commuters since Halloween is over a week away and probably won't have any clue why that strange man has blue face paint on!

They are hoping to take first prize in the parade later today (but are going to have some stiff competion with the Super Mario Bros and Austin Powers Teams) because they apparently got robbed last year!

Here's to a smurfy parade and smurfy win!

Katie Moore Gets Married!

Katie & Jon's wedding took place this past weekend in Albuquerque, New Mexico so Jeff & I flew out to help them celebrate along with the Pulfords. We had never been to New Mexico and it was a pretty cute place. Great food (seriously amazing salsa and guacamole anywhere you go), sassy people and pretty mountains.

 Ben stayed home in Monterey with Grandma and Grandpa so we missed him a little. So... I 'borrowed' Max Pulford for a few hours at the wedding not because I was missing my boy but because I wanted Joe & Jody to get a dance or two in... hmmm... almost convinced myself with that one!

Dad & Ben Make Fudge-cicles

Dad & Ben decided to make fudgcicles last week for the first time. The weather was hot and they decided... why not?! As you can tell from the picture, Ben hated his fudgecicle!

His Royal Highness, Sir Benjamin!

Ben & Dad

Ben is quite the little character, especially right before bedtime when he'd much rather play than sleep. Here he and Jeff are attempting to calm down and relax to get ready for tuck in but Ben has decided he wants to jump and roam. At the time, we weren't thrilled by any stretch of the imagination but looking at the pic in the light of day when we aren't trying to get him to bed, it's pretty darn cute!

Sedona

We got to go on a road trip, just the two of us, for a day to Sedona while Ben played with Grandma & Grandpa. Sedona was a 3ish hour trip and well worth the drive. The highlight, as far as Jen was concerned, was getting our aura read by an Elvis impersonator (side burns, gold sunglasses and all). Unfortunately, we didn't get any pics with him but as we were leaving, he did say : 'thank ya very much' (with an Elvis accent) which gave us a good laugh.

 The landscape and scenery of Sedona is pretty amazing. As seen in the pic above, it is almost like being on another planet.

 Jeff's favorite part of the trip was our 4x4 adventure out to Hopi Indian dwellings that dated back to 1100-1400. We took our little Ford Escape rental on the back roads which were beyond bumpy, rocky etc etc. We weren't sure we would make it at a few spots on the 'road' but the rental car got us through. Since the trip in was pretty tricky, there were very few people there so it was basically just us and this incredible location. The rooms and houses and heiroglyphics of the Hopi were still very intact and it was very easy to picture them living at this spot. Pretty incredible.

 This last pic was the entrance into Sedona with all the spectacular rock formations behind us. We tried to get to one of the energy vortexes but either we didn't feel anything or we missed them completely... we aren't really sure which one. All we know was that it was a really fun day!

Scottsdale

Yes, this post is very long overdue... life for the Bolgers has been a bit busy since we got back from our vacation. So... here goes...

We went to Scottsdale for a week with Grandma and Grandpa (Jacobs) & had a fabulous week of relaxing... well, as much as you can relax with a 15 month old boy. There was lots of pool time and play time for all of us. One of Ben's favorite toys that he played with constantly the entire week was the phone in the condo. Apparently he hasn't been exposed to many land line phones so he was literally on this phone whenever we were inside and he was gabbing into the receiver.

 The pool at the resort also had a splash zone for the kids to run around in and Ben definitely took advantage of it since it was over 100 degrees every day we were there. The people who say, oh, it may be 105 degrees but we're in the dessert and its a dry heat. Let us clear this up right now... 105 degrees is 105 degrees no matter where you are... hence, the splash zone...

 Every day began and ended with pool time for Ben and the adults. The daily 9:00am water aerobics class looved having Ben swim up and splash all the exercisers...

 Jeff & Jen got to go on a hike one morning to Pinacle Peak. We started at 8:00am but by 9:00am, the heat was fairly unbearable... but all in all, great views, good exercise, plenty of water = good adventure.

 Lunch time with Papa was always the highlight of Ben's day (& Papa's too)

 One of our good college friends, Sean Hood, is living in Pheonix just below Camelback Mountain. So, we went over for dinner and met his wife, Nicolle and their beautiful daughter, Elora. Ben and Elora got on famously and played like old friends.