Happy Birthday Will!

Jackson is Real

 

When my sister messaged us at 12:01am on April Fools day this year and told us she was pregnant, we did not believe her. [See her blog post about it] She spent 20 minutes trying to convince us she was telling the truth. Finally, we made a  deal that if she really was pregnant, we’d write and perform a song about how the baby really was real. Turns out she was really pregnant…

So here’s our song!

Kids Day 2011

 

Kid’s Day this year was great!  We got Daniel a set of “Cars” books and Eric’s parents got him a toy bus that came with 3 little people and plays music.  He loved his presents, especially the bus, which he carried around all day and even slept with during nap time.  We had Chocolate ice cream (made with almond milk) for breakfast and some Sorbet (Daniel’s favorite).  We actually celebrated on Saturday so we could go out and do some of Daniel’s favorite things.  We watched the movie “Cars” then we took him to the library and let him pick out a book (it was about Cars of course), then we took him to the pet store to look at all the animals his favorites were the kittens and the fish.  To finish off the afternoon we took him to Wendy’s and got him some chicken nuggets and french fries.  When he woke up from his nap we played the Mickey Mouse ABC computer game and had a sock fight.  Daniel LOVED the sock fight, he thought Eric’s reactions to getting hit were hilarious.  We had a lot of fun, Daniel thinks every day should be Kid’s Day.

		Daniel–Kids Day 2011 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Here are some videos of opening presents:

“Kinect Dodge!” Game

 

The present that Shantell got me for my birthday was a Kinect. Now, that seems like a weird present to give someone who doesn’t have an X-Box 360, but I wanted it for the computer. You see, a few months ago Microsoft released an SDK which allowed people to develop Kinect programs for the computer, and I had been wanting one ever since.

So this week I have been playing around with it and created a game called “Kinect Dodge!” It’s nothing too fancy, but we think it is pretty fun

To see the game in action, here is a video:

Missile Launching Fun

One of the coolest presents that I got for my Birthday this year was a USB Missile Launcher from Shantell’s parents. Here is a little video showing some of the fun I’ve been having with it:

In the future I plan to create a program combining it and a Microsoft Kinect. With the help of its depth sensor and some simple kinematic equations (Yay physics!) I will have a pretty cool auto-aiming missile launcher.

…So soon you will be able to shoot our cat with missiles from the comfort of your own home! :)

Eric turns 11001 years old!

…which is 25 in Binary. :)

My birthday was great. Shantell made me Orange Chicken mmm delicious!  We watched Rio with Daniel which was pretty cute. Daniel loved dancing to all the songs in the movie.  I got some great presents, thanks guys! Shantell’s present was late so she wrote a riddle to tell me what it was, the riddle was really easy to solve since I had figured out a couple days earlier that she bought me a Kinect!  We didn’t take many pictures so we’ll just post them here instead of making a whole album.

Shantell took Daniel to the store to pick out a present for me. She took him through all the aisles (including the toy aisle) and the only thing he wanted to get me was that chocolate frosting with sprinkles. It went great with my cake :)

To Yellowstone and Back again: A Tedjamulia Tale

Friday at 1:00pm Shantell jokingly said “We should go to Yellowstone today.”  and I said “Sure.”  Two hours later we began the 14 hour journey to Yellowstone National Park.

Shantell’s family was having a sort of reunion up there and had rented a cabin.  When we heard about it a couple of months ago we decided not to go because of the long drive and the cost of gas.  But when Shantell’s mom mentioned they were packing for the trip and playfully said we should come too so we could try her delicious tomato soup we decided it might be worth it after all.  We threw some clothes in a suitcase and grabbed all our perishable food from the fridge and set off on the most impulsive trip we’ve ever taken.

Daniel was a perfect little passenger the entire way.  He loved looking out the windows at all the cars, and especially the buses.  He entertained himself by driving toy cars on the side of his car seat, reading car books, singing “The Wheels on the Bus” with us, and when he got a little restless, watching the movie “Cars” on Eric’s Zune…(do you sense a theme here?).  He was really an astonishingly happy little kid, He didn’t throw a fit once!

At 5:30 am we finally arrived at the cabin, I guess that’s what we get for making such last minute decisions. 

We had a great time with Shantell’s family.  Daniel was so happy to see his grandparents, aunt and uncles, and cousins.  Yellowstone was breathtaking.  The cabin was nice and the food was good   Here are some pictures from our trip:

Dragon’s Mouth
(we told Daniel a real dragon lived in there and he
believed us, he kept making dragon noises)

Wild Horses Viewpoint
(An incredible view we saw on the way home)


We saw a Bison!
(We saw several actually, some were pretty close up, but we weren’t about to get out of the car and take pictures with the close ones)


A wolf!


Daniel with Grandpa and his Great Grandparents


Daniel with Mommy, Aunt Emily, and Grandma at the Paint Pots

 

P.S. Shantell says the tomato soup was totally worth it!