Boo at the Zoo

Ghost Eyes, originally uploaded by Aaron in Denver.

Apart from a 45 minute trawl through the various carparks, we had a great time at Boo at the Zoo. Meaghan and Holly were both dressed in full costumes, although I refrained this year after last years exploits.

My mother was trying to convince us she had come as a bee, but I wasn't quite buying it. Guess costumes are in the eye of the beholder ;-)

Random IM Conversation

Sometimes I miss being back home and hanging out with the family. Where else would you get to be involved in deep conversations like this one?

Daniel says:
how you doing bro??
Aaron says:
not too bad - what about you?
Daniel says:
canny!
Daniel says:
hit my hand with a hammer like so a bit sore!
Aaron says:
what did you do that for? was work getting too boring?
Daniel says:
lol
Daniel says:
maybe!

Ice Blocking

If you ever wondered what ice blocking was (and to be perfectly honest, it had never crossed my mind until the wife mentioned it a couple of weeks ago), it basically involves a steep hill, the biggest block of ice you can find, and plenty of laughs.



We all headed over to the local field around the corner from our house, and tried it out. As you can tell from the pics, there were lots of laughs and everyone escaped without any serious injuries (although my side hurt a little from all the laughing).

Feed Me

Cool pic from Like Cool, that I thought would be quite handy to signify the massive amounts of food that could be consumed at our house today. The annual Wife's Birthday's BBQ happens today, and the slight panic that occurs when you have over 70 people reply in the positive to the Evite, and that doesn't include the neighbours or the friends from work is in full swing. Luckily a successful trip to Costco to stock up on food was preceded with an equally successful trip to the liquor store, so I think we're good.

Despite being chief cooker at the grill, I'm going to see if I can fit in taking a few pics as well, so there might be a chance I post a few tomorrow if you're lucky. Stayed tuned.

And Happy Birthday Evie - still can't believe you're one already. See you in November when we're home girl.

New Camera

IMG_0017.JPG, originally uploaded by Aaron in Denver.

So after weeks/months of reviewing, deciding, changing my mind, being a good boy etc etc, I finally succumbed to the temptation of buying a new camera.

This one is a big step up from the last one - a Canon DSLR. Having survived on point and shoot cameras for all of my life so far, the array of buttons is kinda overwhelming, but luckily for me (and my sanity over the weekend) it has a fully automatic mode.

Hopefully my pictures will gradually improve over time - I spent all of last night reading the manual, so at least I got an idea of what each of the buttons do, although how that translates into what happens with a photo is still a bit of a mystery. So, I ordered a couple of books on Amazon to try and help me out - if anyone's got any recommendations then let me know.

So, two photos with this post - the top one is Fynn, who displays an unwavering excitement to all my new techie toys (I think she gets it from her mother), and below is Avery, who stopped by on Saturday to share some hotdogs.

IM's Make Me Laugh

Well, my brothers IM's do - especially when he spots someone as famous as King Kev - I just wonder how many people can claim to have been laughed at by the Newcastle manager?

Daniel says:
seen king kev tonight!
.............
Aaron says:
so where did you see King Kev?
Daniel says:
just in traffic he must of been on his way home from the training ground!
Daniel says:
i was beeping and shouting lol
Daniel says:
he was just laughing!

When a long time isn't enough

BBC NEWS | England | Tyne | Hammer and knife killer gets life

Ella is a Rock Star

And just to prove it, she needs shades to eat her breakfast on her birthday morning.

Happy Halloween

Fynn one pissed of cow
Originally uploaded by hid_patterson.

Not home, but a single Flickr photo made my day.

What I want to know is if Fynn is secretly becoming an internet model for numerous Halloween costumes?

Vacation

P1030730.JPG
Originally uploaded by Aaron in Denver.

Lack of posts (again) was a direct result of me taking some time off from computers (apart from uploading 6 million photos on Flickr during the week). I had a week off while my brother and his family were in town, and we took full advantage.

One of the highlights was a quick blast up to Loveland on Friday to get the first day of the season under my belt. I even tried some Flannery'esque video capture, but as my snowboarding skills don't compare to his skiing, the resulting vid wasn't quite up to the same standard. Still, it was worth the blind panic I felt going down the hill to capture the last 3 seconds ;-)

Anyway, great to see you guys - I had a blast

You realize you're old when....

It seems like 5 minutes since you were watching the Avs in the waiting room when you're first neice was born, but you turn around and realize she's already lost her first tooth!

Congratulations Meaghan! I hope the tooth fairy was good to you xx

Brother Makes the Press

Nope - not for his dodgy IM photo, although this one in particular is definitely worth some sort of award, but coz he can paint. Not walls, or furniture, but cars (real ones) and wheels, and other difficult stuff. So well in fact that he got nominated for Young Painter of the Year in the UK, and had to go all the way down south for the final competition.

He did great, and ended up coming second, just missing out on representing England in the European competition, but still coming away with a few worthwhile goodies (and his photo in the article below).

So congrat's bro, and good luck with the bike test on Tuesday. And take it easy when you pass - I'm not flying back home just to visit you in hospital.....

MathewArticle.pdf

Fynn the Footie Fanatic

So it looks like Fynn (and personally, I think it's directly related to her superior coloring)is a bit of footie player. Here's a brief shot of her taking on herself - young careers always start on the living room carpet. Before you know it, she'll be playing for the Rapids.

Fynn, Meet the World

World, meet Fynn - our newest family member

Snowboarding Classic

One of the cool things about living in Denver is the ample access to plenty of decent snowboarding to get you through the winter. It's obviously a big draw for the family when they come over from England, so here's the best clip of Matthew flying down the slope (sometimes even the right way up!)

Bex and Matthew Visit Denver

So the last few weeks, we've had the pleasure of a visit from my brother Matthew, and his girlfriend Bex. They went home on Thursday night, so thought it was about time that I got around to uploading a few pics etc from the visit. Hopefully they had a blast - I know we definitely did.

We did manage to get them both to the top of Brecke, and they actually survived the whole way down...





We also got a great impression of Matthew's seal like ability to catch the occasional shrimp that gets thrown at him too. It was obvious that him and Gareth had been practising all the time in the basement, when we just thought they were playing XBox.

Stay Clean

And the rest of everything will be so much easier.

Pic courtesy of the brand new camera Claire got for her 21st (again!) birthday yesterday. So, Happy Birthday, and keep the pics coming!

In honor of the perfect day

So, today was a damn fine day - skived off work for the day to hit the slopes with my kid brother (sometimes pretty hard, as it had been a couple of years since my last snow adventure), watched a couple of neices get on the "big peoples" ski lift and make it down the hill alive, and then call into the Ferrari garage on the way home, just coz. I obviously didn't buy anything, but that place always gets me too excited.

So in honor of the day (and coz I can't be bothered to search for any snowboarding footage, and I left my camera at home), here's a little Ferrari vid.

Family

Girls Ice Skating

Any excuse to post about nieces, so here's a couple of videos of them ice skating over Presidents Weekend. If they keep this up, they might end up being the first female players for the Av's (but I'm personally hoping they choose a different career).

Holly First



And here's Meaghan

Specially for Gareth

Combining lego and his new Treo, what more could he want?

Ella Hits 1 - Has a big party

Any excuse to put up pics of our neice. Today is her first birthday, and it looks like she's having a blast. Unfortunately, she's our only neice who lives "back home" so it'll be a little while before we get to see each other. All her birthday party pics are here if you want to see them.

Ella Gets a Christmas Outfit

I know she's the cutest thing in the world, but Daniel, is there any reason to subject her to the clothes you normally wear in the comfort of your own home, and then publish them on the web? ;-)

At least she's still happy about it all!