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This year, for Halloween, the boys wanted to dress up like characters from Star Wars.

Grayson wanted to be Darth Maul. Jack wanted to be Luke Skywalker.

So, I give you:

Darth Maul:

And Luke Skywalker:

Between the two of them, we’ve had some major lightsaber battles around here!

(more photos from Halloween here)

In mid-October, I took Jack and Grayson, and we picked up Maly and headed to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center to be part of their “Flight of the Monarchs” night. We had a lot of fun!

First, we met my Aunt Margo… my Dad’s sister, who I haven’t seen since I was in college 15 years ago.

Then we went into the main center and made caterpillars.

After that we walked up to the top of the observation tower, and I held each of the kids up high, so they could see the surrounding land all around us. They all thought that was pretty cool.

Then the kids were off. Off and running to be exact. I could barely keep up with them… running, running. Running. All over the place. Then we found some yard art.

An iron spider to be exact. And a friend. We played on that for a while, then right as it got dark, we headed back to the car… to home, and to bed.

Maly spent the night with us and the next morning, the kids all ran outside in their t-shirts and underwear, and played and got dirty… and looked for butterflys… Never saw any, but we looked.

What a great weekend!

(more photos here)

Kids are so fun. And funny.

I took some photos of Jack and Grayson in the bath:

and then a few of Grayson in his elephant towel. He’s such a cheese:

Then I took a photo or two of Christine reading to Jack:

Then of Grayson drinking chocolate milk from his bear cup:

Kids…

(all photos here)

This summer, Ella came down to visit, so we met them out at Debbie and Raymond’s lakehouse.

The kids had a blast… Jack and Grayson love handing out with their favorite cousin!

See all the photos here.

As a follow up to our trip to Kemah earlier this year, I’ve finally posted all of the photos from the trip… and talk about some fun photos.

I think these are my favorites:

This is what happens you leave the scanner attached to your iMac and have two boys under 5 at home with access to it:

Heh…

We went for a “drive” the other day. Grayson fell down “kersplat”:

And eventually, we got both kids in the Jeep together:

Jack made me some “electric clean soda” and Grayson made me a taco tonight. In the bath:

We took a photo at the Houston Space Center last week (more on our trip later when I take the time to write it) and I loved the photo so much, I just had to throw it up here:

This year, we headed out to the lake again. Debbie and Raymond had a full house… so full we shared a room with two cousins! Jack got to sleep on the floor on a pallet, which Christine and I shared one double bed, and the two little girls shared the other double. Grayson was in his playpen that first night. We were all so exhausted after a full Friday, that it didn’t matter a bit (and I hope my snoring didn’t keep anyone up too much during the night).

We went swimming as soon as we got there, and the boys had a blast swimming with their cousings:

Aunt Peggy and Payton were in charge of dinner Friday night. Talk about good! Mmmmm. Mmmmmmm… Everyone got plenty of good food (fish, chicken, and beef) and lots of great conversation.

On Saturday, we took all of the kids out on the lake in the morning, for a little fun in the sun!

Grayson got sick that afternoon, and so he and I headed home… Christine and Jack stayed and played… and headed to church on Sunday before heading home to hang with us.

Good weekend, althought it was too short.

See all of the photos here.

A week ago last Friday, Christine, Jack, Grayson and I got on a Southwest plane headed from Austin to Orlando. The plan was the hang out with Jodie and Hayes’ family for a few days, then head to my trade show for a few days, then go to Denver for another trade show and to see Joan, Ted, Lydia and Leo for a few days before heading home. Call it “mixing business and pleasure”, if you will.

In Florida, we stayed with Jodie and Hayes for a few days, and hung out with them at their house for most of the day on Friday (after the boys napped all the way from the airport to their house, and a late lunch at McDonald’s that is). Hayes cooked some of the best burgers I’ve ever had that night, and the kids got hot dogs.

On Saturday morning, we’d planned to wake up and watch the Space Shuttle launch from their backyard, but it was scrubbed due to leaking Hydrogen or something… So, instead I slept in, and then we went to the beach, where we had a blast with them at Ponce Inlet.

We all got a little sunburned, and a lot worn out… the sun and the sand can sure take it out of you. After a day at the beach, we ate at a Chili’s with the extended family (pretty much all of Jodie’s family and most of Hayes’ lives there in Florida).

On Sunday, we got up, and headed to the Orlando Science Center, where the kids had a lot of fun. Our original plan was to hit the beach again, but we decided to save the kids from another sunburn filled day… We saw dinosaur bones, and learned about electricity… had lunch, and then picked oranges. Afterwards, we headed to Downtown Disney and the Lego Store before dinner at T-Rex (which is like a Rainforest Cafe with dinosaurs instead of monkeys).

We checked into the Marriot that night, and settled in. I went to a business thing, and the kids and Christine got to sleep pretty late.

On Monday, I did “work” things, while Christine and the boys met Jodie and her beautiful kids, Emma and Morgan, and spent the morning in the pool at the Marriot… which happens to be the biggest pool in the world or something.

Christine had her hands full with the kids all day… I was working… then on Tuesday, she took the kids out while I worked from the room and the lobby of the hotel, and then we headed to the airport around noon. We were lucky we’d left so early, because we ended up having to walk all the way across the Orlando airport after turning in the rental car, before waiting about an hour to check our bags (all 7 of them) with Southwest. The Orlando airport is a zoo. We boarded the airplane, all a little frazzled. The boys wouldn’t sleep, and couldn’t get comfortable, and Christine and I were tired too.

We rented a car in Denver (we weren’t sure if we were going to until we landed) and drove a little out of our way to get to the hotel… and checked in around 9:30 p.m. or so. The staff at the downtown Sheraton were awesome though, and got us into our room quickly, and brought up a crib and fridge quickly too. We got the kids to bed, and I stayed up late catching up on work from the day that I’d not had time to do.

On Wednesday, I worked in the morning, while the kids explored downtown Denver. They hit the public library, the Museum of Art, and the Capitol grounds, before we all went to lunch together. I headed to the lobby to work while the kids took naps (Christine did too). We then met Joan, Leo and Lydia out on the Denver Mall for dinner.

I took Grayson home from dinner early, because he just wasn’t feeling well. We watched Madagascar 2, and all of us went to bed late.

On Thursday, I got up and headed to another trade show, while Christine took the boys, and loaded up the car, and drove out to Arvada, Colorado (the pinnacle of Denver suburbia) to stay with Joan and Ted for the remainder of our trip. Grayson was so exhausted that he finally just laid down in the middle of the living room and crashed. While he napped, the rest of the kids headed to the pool and playground.

On Friday, I quickly hit the trade show, then checked out of the hotel early, and waited for the family to pick me up. Meanwhile, they hit Red Rocks Amphitheatre and Dinosaur Ridge. Talk about some cool stuff! Jack told me all about all of the dinosaur footprints and bones they found on the ride back to the Wagner’s house. That night, Ted cooked filet mignon on the grill, and we all caught up a little after the kids went to bed.

We were treated to this sunset from the front porch of the Wagner’s new house:

Gorgeous.

On Saturday, we got up and headed to Boulder, taking the scenic route through the mountains. We stopped at the Barker Dam for a few photos…

Our goal was to hike to Boulder Falls, but they were closed due to fallen rocks, which was just as well, as the kids were hungry. After lunch at a brewpub in Boulder, we left Joan and Ted, Leo and Lydia in Boulder and headed to the Denver airport. Turning in the car was easier there, but the bag check line at Southwest was just as bad as Orlando.

We got to our gate about 15 minutes before we started boarding (even though we were at the airport a good two hours before our flight), and got on the plane with some tired kids.

Grayson slept all the way home, and Jack and Christine played games together. It was a great flight, and we were glad to be home.

Seven days on the road, in two cities, with me having to actually work 5 of those days, makes for a very tired family, and we’re enjoying catching up on our rest today. We loved seeing our friends, but I don’t think we’ll mix business and pleasure again until the kids are old enough to buy their own tickets and get their own hotel rooms. Or until I can afford to just not work, if I don’t want to.

You can see all of the photos here:

Ponce Inlet Beach Photos
Orlando Photos
Denver Photos

Christine, Jack, Grayson and I drove up to Dallas this weekend to attend Steven’s graduation ceremony from SMU.

Talk about being proud of someone… I could see the pride in Michael, Mary, Frank, and Christine’s faces… And I must say he looked good in blue and red. And you can see the excitement on Steven’s face too:

Can’t you see it?!

Seriously, though, we had a blast. The kids played a lot at Nana and Papa’s, and had a blast, and Christine and I enjoyed visiting as always…

The kids had a blast today outside using the sidewalk chalk… and while they started with coloring our limestone patio, they ended up coloring themselves:

What fun!

I had some time on the airplane home from Seattle the other night, so I put together these movies from old footage from November I had on my laptop:

Good times!

I took this photo of Grayson and Christine in March of 2007:

And I got a call from a guy, asking to use it as the cover art on an album he was planning on putting out soon. We chatted on the phone, and I got this email from him shortly thereafter:

From: Jonathan Kessler
Subject: A Mother’s Kiss
Date: January 25, 2009 1:35:01 PM CST
To: John Engler
Cc: Ted Kastelic

Hi John,

It was good speaking with you today.

Thanks for giving us your permission to use your photograph for the cover of our CD “Wisdom of a Kiss”, and for sending us a high-res version of the picture to use.

We’ll credit you on the CD – is the wording here OK with you?

“Cover Photograph by John Engler, johnengler.com ”
 
Also please include your mailing address so we can send you some copies of the CD by way of thanks.
 
It’s a wonderful photograph and we’re really pleased to have found it and to be able to use it.  It captures the concept “Wisdom of a Kiss” beautifully.
 
Jonathan

Turns out they’d found a photo of mine on flickr that they liked a lot for their new album.

So, I sent them my mailing address, and the photo in hi-res versions…

And just the other day, I found the art on their website.

So, go to their band’s website, and take a listen… I really enjoyed the songs available on their website. You will too, I bet:

Thanks Folk in A!

Go buy a copy.