Halloween Night

Carson and I had a blast on Halloween night! Carson was Ironman. We Trick-Or-Treated at our family's houses in town and around our neighborhood.

It was even fun answering the door for Trick-Or-Treaters that came by our house. It was always a disappointment at our old house when only one or two kids would stop by.

Farrari Farms Pumpkin Patch

We went to the Ferrari Farms Pumpkin patch with Michelle on Thursday. We picked out the pumpkins we would carve for Halloween (picture in the next post). They have a bounce house, games, farm animals, and a hayride for the kiddies - all with a nice harvesty atmosphere for the season.

Carson Building Castles

Grandpa Ross is always building something in his woodshop. Some time back, he made a wooden castle block set. Carson was so excited when his Great Grandpa gave him the set on Sunday; we've been building castles since.

Thanks Grandpa Ross!

A Time of Healing

Healing is a wonderful thing. Since my visit with the Orthopaedist, I have been steadily recuperating. Shockingly, he affirmed the diagnosis from the Urgent Care doctor -- my left shoulder rotator cuff was the cause of the problems.

While he gave me several treatment choices, he prefers to treat this type of injury very conservatively, which I really like. He recommended giving it more time and extensive physical therapy -- basically the same guidance that the Urgent Care doctor gave; I just didn't have enough confidence in the original diagnosis to risk making things worse.

I have been exercising my shoulder with excellent results. While motion is still painful, I now have almost full range of motion back. It is so exciting to feel the progress. I think there is a good chance that it will heal completely without surgery.

My ribs have been healing steadily, but slowly; they are now mostly healed.

Happy Kids

The boys recently got to see their Grandma Bea, which made them very happy! Thanks for coming to visit, Mom. We enjoyed having you here and we're so glad you could stay with us!

Friends

While driving home from Home Depot 'Safety Day', I told Carson, "Thanks for going with me this morning," to which he responded, "Thanks for being my friend, Dad."

Home Depot Safety Day

You just feel bad when small shops try hard, but fail. Carson and I went to the Woodcraft Tool Show; we found more employees than customers at the unfortunate 'Tool Show'. They spent a lot of time preparing demos and they even had homemade food, but there were very few people to appreciate it. It made me want to buy something, to at least make them feel a little better, but I couldn't find a thing that we needed or even wanted.

On our way home, we saw that Home Depot was having 'Safety Day'. We pulled over to find Carson's dream party: a huge firetruck, a police car, an amulance, Home Depot Kids Workshop projects, good music, and some free gadgets and snacks.

Firefighters are always so nice -- they are one of the few non-religious organiziations that we donate to. Justin, the firefighter, introduced himself to Carson and helped him into the firetruck. Carson actually got to go inside!

Carson was able to go inside of an amulance too. How many kids can say that they've done that? I never had until then (yes, I know, I'm not a kid anymore).

The police car was open for kids to sit in and even push the siren and light buttons -- how fun!

Surrounded by many of our local heros, Home Depot had a Kid's Workshop where Carson built a really cool firetruck.

We both had a blast!

Halloween Gifts

Ray, Paula, Charlotte and Elise are always so thoughtful; every holiday they send Carson and Tucker gifts.

Carson loves the new glowing Jack-O-Lantern and Halloween Beanie Baby Cat.

Thanks!

Marketing Genius -- GeoTrax Toys

Carson got a free Fisher Price GeoTrax movie in the mail today. The semi-irritating DVD had three short episodes animating GeoTrax toys.

After it ended, Carson looked at the advertisement that came with the movie and said, "I want to buy these ones, " pointing to some of the toys in the ad.

Whoever figured out that marketing strategy got it right -- it worked.

Boys in their PJs

A few shots of us hanging around this morning in our PJs...

Tucker's hair naturally sticks up and curls.

The Knights of Modesto, CA

Scott, Lori and family recently moved to Modesto, CA; leaving Carson missing his buddy Brianna.

So she brought her family up here for the weekend to visit Carson and to watch the LDS General Conference among other things.

It was fun to see them.

LDS General Conference was excellent. There were some truly inspiring talks. My favorite was by President Monson -- about enjoying life today, while still planning and preparing for life's tomorrows. It really made me stop to think about all of the blessings that I have. I hope to take greater appreciation in the little things of each day (which starting this blog has already been helping me with).

Riding In Grandpa Knight's Cobra

Carson lived out his wildest race car dreams riding in Grandpa Knight's Cobra. Grandpa almost got that thing up to 5mph! Who knew that car could even go that slow?

The kids had a blast.

Thoughtful Three-year Old

This morning, Carson sat down next to me and asked, "So Dad, how did you sleep last night?"

It caught me off guard -- was this coming from a three-year old? He listened intently as I responded.

What a sweet little boy.

Potty Training Progress Chart

Carson's pottty training progress posters are filling up! He has really improved this week (although, he still has a lot of progress to make).

Mis-diagnosis, again...

After doing quite a bit of research on the internet and talking with my Dad, it appears that there is no way that the urgent care doctor diagnosed my shoulder correctly. It sounds like my lower deltoid may have partially detached from the bone -- not a problem with the rotator cuff.

In any case, it hasn't appeared to heal at all in the last three weeks. I'm planning on seeing an orthopedist. From the sounds of it, surgery could be required.

Our urgent care system is in need of, well, urgent care. Angela and I have each visited several urgent care facilities in the last couple of years, just to be mis-diagnosed every time.

How is it possible to be wrong every time? If you estimate that the average doctor makes a correct diagnosis 80% of the time, then the odds of these urgent cares failing us 5 times in a row would be: .2%^5 = .03% -- very improbably. In other words, either urgent care doctors are significantly below average or the urgent care system prevents them from succeeding (or both).

Sparks Firefighters Pancake Breakfast

Firefighters have got fund-raising figured out. For the second year in a row, we attended the Sparks Firefighters Pancake Breakfast. It had been a rough night, so Angela stayed home with Tucker while Carson and I went to the firehouse.


Community leaders cook and serve the food while firefighters give tours, demonstrate firefighting equipment, entertain, answer any questions, and clean up. I am always amazed at how cheerful they look. At all of their fundraisers, the firefighters look truly happy about what they are doing -- making it fun to help out.



Carson loved the mascot 'Sparky' (pretty clever name for the Sparks Fire Department) and the remote control fire-hydrant 'Lil Squirt'.

Keith's New Office

Ok. It's not really an office. After my company moved to a new office building this week, the developers no longer get their own offices. But to christen the building, the company invited families to come for lunch. Carson was so excited!

I have an amazing view from my cube:

Scheels (Sparks, NV) -- the worlds largest sports store

What sense does it make to build the worlds largest sports store in Sparks, NV? I don't have a clue, but in any case, Scheels did it. It is an amazing store.

You enter through the most amazing aquarium archways:



A large Ferris wheel fills the center of the store

They have a kids playset and climbing wall:



Even a large taxidermy display:


They've got any sports related thing you can imagine. They've got a golf simulator, football simulator, baseball, archery, hunting, and race car driving simulators.



And what sports store is complete without a sea plane?



In case you get hungry, they have a restaurant and fudge shop. They even have animatronic American Presidents.


It is a destination in itself. What a fun store!