Pumpkins and Training

I was gone and busier than ever last week.  I was in Pueblo CO for some training for the next time a big railroad derailment occurs.  Generally we got about 12hrs per day of training, and the days seemed to drag on.  Almost everyone in the training were firefighters from all over the country.  At the end of every day the Railroad gave us dinner and all the drinks you wanted...needless to say, firefighters tend to drink a lot.  I tried to take it easy since we had to be on the be us for training every day at 7am, but some of these guys were out till 4-5am and then training all day.  Not sure how they do it, but they did.  It got a bit crazy at some points, but the cops were only called one, so it was an improvement over the last group that came for training.  I felt like the old guy there turning it at 11pm at the latest and if you can believe it, I was about the most mature person there.  It was like being with a bunch a freshman frat guys, except they were 40+yrs of age...seriously tiring.

Training in progress

what is that black smoke coming from the rail car....I am sure it is nothing.

Here is the night exercise of flaring material from inside the rail car.

Before I left we had a friend give us this electric train.  It seemed to be out of batteries, but after a replacement, I found out the motor was broken.  No big deal, because James does not know any better and he is happy with anything. 

Jim and Sandra came over the other weekend because it was Sandra's birthday.  A good time was had by all.

James likes hats sometimes, and apparently he likes my 25yr old Oakland A's stocking cap...who would have thought.

We also got to go to a backyard harvest party the other weekend.  Brenda saw this pumpkin idea on TV and wanted me to figure out how to make it work...standard.

I ended up contrasting a picture and getting it into black and white, printing it off, laminating the back and then slapping it onto a pumpkin where I skinned the front.  Bam...done.

The back is the family on a TV set.  It looks great now that I got a light bulb in it, but it was not very bright with the candle.

Hard to tell, but these were the other pumpkins in the competition.  We did not win, but I had a happy wife and that is better than any old first prize you can win (I got my "first prize" all the same).

Update through pics

Finally got a second to post.  I have been working a bunch recently on a project about a hour away and the long days leave little time to have any fun or see my kid when he is awake, but it should all be over soon.  By next week the project should be complete and I will hopefully get to sleep past 530am.

I have a lot of pics and many of them are from a couple weeks ago, but they are nice all the same.

James loves to run around the house after baths in the buff wearing his hooded bath towel which looks like a jedi cape screaming his head off.

Couple weeks ago on Sunday we went to liberty lake and took a evening walk.  James got sand everywhere of course, but had a great time.

He really loves just hanging out and messing around alot.

Obviously throwing rocks is cool.

Such a nice day looking at the Liberty Lake flats.

Another view of the nice area where we live.

We also went to this vintique store the other weekend where James got to site on a tractor. 

He loves trucks and "diggers" or backhoes and I guess that figures since he is a man's man.

My pumpkins this year got off to a very slow start and ended up not getting close to last years beast.  I got about 5 that are large, but the biggest one tops out at about 100lbs maybe.  My father-in-law on the other hand got some seeds from me and with the soils and heat they have down there he got one that weighed 360lbs.  Maybe next year I will have one that big.

Here is James feeding himself...a skill not yet mastered by many DeJongs.

Got to go out on the church campout as well.  I went, but had to work so left before 5am and got back to camp about 6pm, so not a lot of fun for me.  I did sleep very good.

Since I have been working alot, Brenda thought this would be a good time to go and visit her sister in Indiana.  She went out there and had a great time helping them out making food, cleaning, playing with our nieces and being a regular Mary Poppins.

Just down the road there is a pumpkin patch near the park they visited.

James had a  great time with his cousins (or so I hear), but I hope he likes it back here as well.

Brenda had a great time as well.