Halloween

We kicked off Halloween a week early by carving pumpkins together. (Not a good idea to carve that early if you are wanting your pumpkins to last longer than a couple days.)  Savor this picture because next year at Halloween those boys will all be graduated and we will be forced to carve pumpkins without eachother!

 Rocky is old enough this year to enjoy the festivities- we took him trick or treating at Joe's school campus with his best bud Cameron the Dinosaur.  I know it's hard to tell in his homemade costume but he is the incredible hulk!  Not pictured: His incredible hulk hands- dad is carrying them in order to help him have access to the candy bowls.

Only in AZ- a quick cool down in the sprinklers after walking the campus for candy.  An interesting side note- the Dental program at Midwestern gave away toothbrushes and toothpaste for all the little trick-or-treaters.  Rocky loves brushing his teeth so much that he discarded the sucker he was working  on to rip open his new Diego tooth brush.  He brushed his teeth the whole rest of the time.  Good boy.

The Annual Halloween Bashers

pictured more closely:

The Weatherspoons: The Punisher, The Incredible Hulk, A Professional Wrestler

                                          The Esplins: Princess Peach and Mario

Jared and Ashley: Clark Kent and a Halloween Angel

The Nuckles: Hulk Hogan!(Personal Fav.) Andre the Giant, Dino, and Bat

 So every year all of us have kept our costumes a complete secret from eachother until the night of the party.  Despite how things may look here there was no collaborating between Andy, Jon, or I to all show up as wrestlers.  I always knew I felt a kinship with those Nuckles, now I know why...

Joe's party food contribution: A watermelon sitting in it's own throw up. yumm

My contribution: Worms and ice cubes.

                   

                                           What is that? A flaming pumpkin?

 Brian's exact words before bobbing for this apple, "I have never done this before,"  The suprised look on his face made believers out of all of us, including Hulk Hogan, even when it only took him 5 seconds to come up with it! 



Wallowa Lake- Our Farewell to OREGON

Some may ask, "Was Oregon a success?" Well I think this picture below answers for itself.  Just a side note, the picture below is a replica of a picture taken 7 years early of me and Ross swimming at our swimming hole in Baker City.  It was also the first picture Sarah ever saw of me, and I believe her exact words to my beloved sister Ashley after seeing this picture was; "Maybe I'll just go serve a mission."

The picture above is before jumping into Wallowa Lake at 7 in the morning, temperature 41 degrees, temperature of the lake, cold as a Mt. Dew slushy headache, cold as a witches...T

it was cold.  Here me and my brother Ross regather our manhood.  We felt lucky that our last week, Ross and Rachel were able to come down and visit.  We also feel lucky that Sarah and Rachel are both having little girls, and that Rosalie and Brooklyn are going to be the cutest little things ever, named of course after the Newsies and The Da Vinci Code.  If they were going to have a boy, they would have named him Rolland, so when they came over we could say "Rock and Roll... cominatcha yeahhhaa, paaoaw!"

Rocky of course loved the lake, and I was going to let him join me on our polar bear swim if he was up for the challenge, however Mama was just a little too warm to let go of that morning.  Next time my little man.  Remember a few posts back when I said that Rocky was one of the healthiest eaters I know, well he's not. 

Now he's our little Cookie monster, he is already a veteran at eating oreo's, knowing full well to eat out the cream filling then pass the rest on to Bear dog.  He also enjoys a nice healthy swig of Mt. Dew, a Mexican lollipop, Chesters, Cheetos, KitKats, and Otter Pops.  I will take all the blame for these eating habits, Sarah did not fill herself with the previous mentioned items in her third trimester with Rocky, in fact she ate quite healthily.  Speaking of nice healthy swigs of Mt. Dew, now would be a good time to briefly mention my last rotation at SRCI in Oregon.  It was an enjoyable experience filled with illegible handwriting, fun pharmacists, angry techs, atypical antipsychotics, and best of all three Mt. Dew chugging contests, of the which I was victorious in the last one (the one that counts), and luckily because I won the last one rather than spew Mt. Dew all over the pharmacy, I avoided the nickname Ol'Faithfull.

We spent a good amount of time out by the lake skipping rocks.  Like Jerky is to Kade, skipping rocks is to me and my brother Ross, if I could just skip rocks all day long, then I would be a happy man.

Rocky enjoyed picking up everything he could, then showing us.  This I think was a finger from that nasty witch that was mentioned earlier, obviously the water was too cold for her to bare.

I like this boys style, he likes a challenge.  He doesn't pick the smallest rock to start skipping, he finds the biggest nastiest looking one and then has his way with it.

Rocky and Grandma Weatherspoon were matching today.  Rock grew pretty attached to his grandparents.  His favorite activity everyday was to go downstairs to see what grandma was up to, and sneak into Ed's room to take a gander at his prized Hot Wheels collection.

Like two peas in a pod these two.  They share so many similar facial expressions.  Rocky and grandpa Weatherspoon spent a good amount of time cutting a rug to "She'll be coming around the mountain when she comes."  Also, one of Rocks daily rituals was to run naked as a jay bird out of the bathroom and jump onto grandpa's lap to dry himself on grandpa's shirt.

We also went on a nice little hike.

Rachel was a sport and hiked with her nice and slick boots on, but she still had no problem scaling the beast.  It wasn't until the very last decline that Ross had the privilege of giving his five month old pregnant wife a piggy-back down to safety.

No he didn't.

Rocky loved being just one of the boys.  I love that Rocky is so at one in the mountains. He is such a manly-man boy, I know he is going to be a good, loving, and protective big brother to little Rose. 

We loved our time in Oregon, and feel so blessed to have so many opportunities to travel and visit with family and friends.  My parents are so loving, patient, caring, and thoughtful, it makes me feel honored to have been raised by them. 

Back in Baker For a Day

We all headed out to Baker City, OR (Joe's hometown) for a day last weekend.  We enjoyed a picnic along the Powder River, and a delightful nature walk.  The path we were on couldn't have been more than 1.5miles, but with Rockwell it took us at least 2 hours.  He had to overturn every rock, pull up every plant, and inspect every bug.  This picture of him pretty much sums that up.  He was so happy and excited during our little hike it made it one of the most enjoyable nature walk we had all ever been on. 

Warren's scouting out the trail ahead.

If you look closely you can see the hard work of Dan's (Joe's older brother) eagle project.  The bird houses are still there.  This picture was taken especially for you Dan-

The biggest wishing flower we have ever seen!

WARNING:  If the viewer is sicked out about snakes, scroll past the next photo

How brave is my boy?  Holding his first snake was no big deal.  Let's be honest, he was calmer than his dad over the whole ordeal.

3 Generations of pretty great guys.

Have I mentioned that Rocky's new best friend is his grandma?

When I asked Margaret to take a family picture for us, Rocky with his fingers in Joe's eyes and nose is not what I had in mind.  But I like it.

Stop #2 on our day was Phillips Lake.  This is Joe's favorite cliff jumping spot. 

 

Joe is checking out the infamous spot where his big brother Dan took a spill down the cliff when they were teenagers, hitting his head on some rocks.  Joe jumped in after him and pretty much saved his life.  Rocky don't get any ideas.

 

Ever since I have known Joe he has talked about this camping spot he and his buddies used to go to during their high school years.  I finally got to see it.  It is so high up in the mountains, and the road is so rough to get up there, it hadn't seen enough foot traffic these past 10 years to change the way it looked.

Rock is holding the arrow I found in the ground at the camp spot.  It was an excellent parting gift from the ol' campsite, especially since it is the exact weight that Joe uses on his bows!

A pretty great view from up there.

I have always loved the memories from my childhood- growing up in the Bay Area was incredible and I have never wanted anything different- But on days like this where I get to see the beauty and rugged nature that Joe got to make his playground growing up, I think I do get a little jelous that some of those aren't my memories. 

We ended the day at the Baker High School football stadium to cheer on the Bulldogs.  There's no need to mention they didn't win- or that it wasn't even a close game.  It was a fabulous day catching up with old friends and checking out all of Joe's old stompin grounds.

Cantaloupe Without a Licence

While staying at my parents we found our first "home video" of Rocky. You may notice the level of professionalism that this was filmed, lucky for us 'Warren the Hammer' was the camera man. Practice makes perfect. Just a side note, anyone who has watched a home sports film that was filmed by their parents knows the level of concentration and experience required for such a feat. Usually a home movie filmed by 'Warren the Hammer' is accompanied by odd commentary about a mix of happenings on the field as well as off the field. Also, you can tell when something important is happening because the picture will pan to the back of the closest mullet.


I can't believe how big Rocky has gotten. I never thought Rocky was dainty, but when we saw this film of him when he was 4 months old eating cantaloupe (cantaloupe without a license), he looked so small. It was impressive of how independent he was from such a young age. He would not let me touch the fork, but I did take the first chance I got to nab that cantaloupe. "Like stealing candy from a baby."

Life in Oregon

Here's an update of the usual happenings here in Ontario, OR. 

Skipping Rocks at the Owyhee River to beat the heat.

Rock's buddying up with grandpa in the shade.

We played an exciting game of 'pooh sticks'.  Rocky threw his stick in a little early- but he's still learning to count to 3, so we didn't hold him accountable.

I think we found a new family hobby- U Pick Orchards!  We love them- mostly because Rocky loves them.  Joe's co-workers suggested this orchards and they were incredible.  We picked our fill of plums and apples. 

I like these camoflauged boys.

This picture just made me laugh because that I startled Rocky and caught him dropping the plum mid fall.

Despite the look on his face, Rocky LOVES plums.

He worked on this apple, which happens to be pretty much the size of his head, the whole way home.

Every day (sometimes twice a day) Rock and I walk around the grounds of Joe's parent's place and we pick an apple or a peach.  Rocky always finds a creative place to eat his fruit.