Commander Rex - Clone Trooper

I went and got Griffin his Halloween costume at Target the other day, to make sure they still had one. Come to find out the had TONS of them (and they were on sale thank heaven - so cheaply made and pretty expensive!) so no worries there. I truly can't remember ever buying this kind of Halloween costume when I was growing up, we had these really funny monster masks (one was Frankenstein, can't remember the other) that had foam of some sort in the top to make the head square and then the face was mesh with the monster face silk-screened on it. It was made of mesh to allow you to breath when you pulled it on over your head, but it didn't work, you'd always have to pull the mask off or it felt like you'd suffocate. We had those for YEARS! I wouldn't be surprised if my mom still has them somewhere. I wish I knew what to Google so I could find a picture of them. A Google search of 70's or vintage Halloween Masks yields pages and pages of results with no luck, and Bing was even worse. Soooo, anyway, here are some pics of Griff as Commander Rex, Clone Trooper (from Star Wars for you laymen):

He needs a gun for this outfit, I'll see if I can find him one...
(side note: maybe I'll go as Obi-Wan Kenobi and wave my hand at people and say, "this is not the clone you're looking for")

Yes that's a Tae Kwon Do stance, he's ready to do battle. He did these poses all on his own, I'm a little worried :-D

Griffin with his Clone Trooper mask on, playing Lego Star Wars on Wii. It's true, he's addicted to Star Wars!

I think I told some people that I thought if I showed Griff his Halloween costume, he'd want to wear it all the time? Yeah, I was right - this is in the car on the way back to drop him off.

I got him some new winter clothes too, the kid grows so fast, the jeans I got him in March are easily 2" too short. Thank you Shawn White for Target!!!

Sky Box

Normally I don't think I would do a restaurant review of a sports bar. The food at a sports bar is So hit and miss. Sometimes it's decent and edible, other times it almost makes you want to be Vegan (ALMOST!)

Sky Box is different. I went last night to watch the UFC fights (super boring last night, not even worth discussing) and didn't plan on eating much - it was pretty late after the REAL match (WAY TO GO REAL!!!! Spanked the Crapids and made the MLS playoffs, great job!!!) and I'm trying to avoid the winter 15, so a lot of fried food at 10pm was not on the agenda.

However, Darryl, our server (nice guy!) came over just about as excited as I've ever seen a server in any restaurant and he was just dying to tell me about the special. I had already ordered my mango lemonade (D-licious at this place, the Peach is also very good!!!) and was pretty much resigned to ordering some cheese fries, I know, I know, I had already calculated how long I would have to be at the gym, to work those off, but I rationalized and I was ready to order. So Darryl starts telling me about the special. Get ready for this. Bacon-wrapped shrimp with jack cheese and jalapeno. So, hearing him describe the special had piqued my interest. But I hesitated. He then offered to get me one so I could try it, and he did. And I immediately upon tasting this culinary delight ordered a full plate of them! As I sat and ate possibly the tastiest thing I'd had in a while I wondered why ANYONE would give up eating bacon, it truly makes everything better!!! And the slice of jalepeno in there was such a nice touch, giving it just a touch of spice with the deliciousness of the bacon. Really, the shrimp and cheese were there just to hold things together I think. While I like both things, I could have gone with the bacon-wrapped jalepeno. :-D Oh, the plate also came with some nice mexican rice and steamed veggies, SO I got a nice serving of veggies into my diet for the day too! (actual veggies - squash, brocolli, carrots, zucchini, etc.) Really very nice. Good job Sky Box chefs! :-)

The Sky Box in South Jordan is actually very nice too. If you want to get a group of guys together (or girls, whatever) for a televised sporting event, I highly recommend the place. Clean, good service and surprisingly good food!

First Grade SupahStah!!!

There he is! First Grade Griff! (Not sure what's up with the squinty-eyed smile, but I'm sure they didn't take a bunch of shots to choose from.) Amazing how fast this kid has grown, and he is LARGE! he is way taller than his buddies that he plays with when he's with me (and one of them is 8!!!) and must weigh a metric ton by now. I can't wait to get this kid into football and basketball, he's going to be a bruiser (if he can develop a little attitude!) And I'm definitely seeing him as a Tim Howard type goal-keeper, which would be awesome because then I could go watch him play in England :-D

I can't even begin to tell you how proud I am of this kid. He has been through things no kid should have to go through, but he is a total trooper and is so nice and so sweet and funny, and so even-keeled (I just re-read that, is he really my son???? Yep, just check the forehead! :-D ) I just love him and I'm so glad he's my son, I definitely wouldn't trade him for anything in the world.

My Commute

Since I totally forgot to take pics of me and Griff the other day, I thought you'd all be interested in what my commute looked like this morning. The traffic was surprisingly light, but I came over the POTM (Point of the Mountain for you non-Utahns, is the dividing line between Salt Lake County and Utah County. I live in Salt Lake county and work in Utah County.) Click the pics, they get bigger and you can actually see things. :-)

The fog (once again, forgive the RiPhone, and my dirty windshield):
You should be able to see Lehi and the rest of Utah County from here, but the blanket of fog in the valley was pretty thick. Looked really cool. Some of the buildings were poking up out of the fog and it reminded me of San Francisco :-)

Timp in the Fog, looked kinda cool, I don't think you can really tell from this pic...

Timp in the clear with the sun coming up. A little depressing that the sun isn't up at almost 8am, but still pretty...

And for Mom, I did get copies of Griff's first grade pics, SO dang funny. I'll scan it and put it up here for you.

The pic post

I had a few pics on my Nikon that I needed to take off because a friend is borrowing it (yep, I'm that nice of a guy - but he knows full well if he breaks it he buys it, so it's all good.)

These are all chronologically backwards again, but this is just a pic dump post anyway...

With that, let's begin:

The Zoo:
Baby Giraffe, such a weird animal, and it's neck was totally crooked like it needed a serious chiropractic adjustment. Do they have "witch chiropractors"?

I think Griff was tired of pictures by this time. For some reason, he was always 2 cages ahead of us, like he didn't think we'd see everything so he was running to make sure he got it all in. If you're not first you're last! :-D


We all liked the penguins, they were pretty funny. By now we were all melting however, so the standing in the sun was short-lived.

I think the Zebra is back behind there somewhere, but the lighting is jacked up, I need photoshop.

Not sure what's going on here, I think it was at the bear cages? Looks like these two are being monkeys...but that's normal.


The baby elephant is the star of the show, and she was pretty cute.

I think I officially have to announce that Griffin is too big to hold like this anymore. It's like what I would imagine picking up John Stockton would feel like.

After lunch, planning out our group's next move. Paul's MBA class at the U held this event and it was cool, we got lunch and a free pass to the zoo, thanks Paul! Thanks UofU :-D

More planning with Kaja getting interested...

Kaja's soccer match, Jaxon being clingy, maybe he's afraid of the camera? Nah.

Kaja in action on the soccer pitch!

Getting ready to celebrate a goal from her team!

Griff hanging out at Kaja's soccer match.


Griff's team waiting to kick off for the 2nd half kickoff.


Griff in goal, throwing the ball out to his team, well where his team is supposed to be...

Not sure what this pose is, but it's the last match, so go crazy kid!



Cool action shot of the Griffster taking the ball around the opposing team. Judging by where their goalie is standing though, I think he's going the wrong way. :-D