Random happenings from September

Here is a collection of some random pictures from the month of September.

Yes, we turned around to find that Allie had climbed onto the dishwasher door to explore uncharted territory. And hey look, no hands!

To add to her new sense of adventure she is learning to scale the stairs. And if you are familiar with our stairs you understand that going up our stairs is like a rock climbing wall.

Rachel and Emma getting warm at a Soccer Game.

This is the typical sleeping position of Allie, head flat on the mattress, arms nearby, on her knees with her back end sticking up in the air.

I was making a cake for Rachel's birthday, and Emma insisted on helping. She actually did a very nice job and followed instructions really well. It was nice having a "little helper" that actually helped.

Revenge of the Camera Ham

Ever since Allie started to give her cheesy grin, she is now starting to pull it whenever the camera comes out. Usually she is doing something so we get the camera and take a picture, and she realizes that the camera is out, so she pulls her grin. We have notice a pattern of a normal picture, then immediately thereafter comes the cheesy grin picture, as you will be able to see in the samples below.

Trip around the Alpine Loop

We took a trip up through the Alpine Loop to see the status of the fall leaves. Some of the trees had changed colors, but there was still a lot of green.

Here you can see a patch of the yellow coming in.



I was able to shoot a couple of portrait pictures.

Of course Andrew is not so big on the portrait pictures, so I got a grumpy grumpster.

Then as fate would have it Andrew noticed some dismembered deer legs and taking a decent portrait immediately became non-existent.

What else would you do should you find dismembered deer legs...break out the camcorder.

Andrew's Soccer

So we signed Andrew up for Fall Soccer. Usually the games are pretty uneventful, but it is always fun to watch the kids play. Most of the pictures should speak for themselves, but I will add comments as needed.

Sometimes it seemed there was some standing around, not much paying attention.

Alright finally some action! Oh but wait, Andrew, that kid is on your team!

Andrew is obviously contemplating his next strategic play, or maybe trains, either or.

Run Andrew run! Exactly where the ball is is kind of a mystery.

A decent action shot of the group chasing the ball.

Nice kick Andrew! Should the ball be in front of his foot, or is it just the angle I am at?

Nice move! Looks like some kind of cool reverse kick. I guess you would need to be hitting the ball with your foot to actually consider it a move though, oh well.

Here is a nice picture with Andrew's Fan club in the background.

Just another shot of a play in action. This one captures Andrew's coach. I thought about volunteering as an assistant coach, but then I realized that she could probably bench press more than I could so I figured she could handle things just fine.

All in all the soccer season has been pretty fun, especially for Andrew. I think it is good for him to get that "team" sort of interaction. Andrew also likes it the best when they get to play other teams. He will always ask me if he has soccer practice, or if he will get to battle other teams. So when it is a "battle" he gets pretty excited.

Andrew and his Camera

So awhile back I had pulled out the old 8mm camcorder and was using it to record one of our "Cool Adventures" with Andrew, and I had him man the camera while I tried to capture a frog. After that I said he could have the camera, and use it whenever he wanted. Well he took me up on that offer, and now likes to take it out whenever he sees something of interest. The kid really took to it. He wields the thing around as if he has done this for years. I will see what I can do about capturing the videos digitally so I can post some of his work.

Allie the advanced Camera Ham

It looks like we have a cheesy one on our hands. Just recently Rachel was taking a picture of Allie and she scrunched up her eyes and nose trying to make a grin as big as possible exposing her cute, yet somewhat scary two front teeth. You can compare the with and without cheese pictures. She's a cute one, but she is already haming it up for the camera. This could be a nice change of pace since I was trying to take a picture of Andrew and he holds his hands out with a "get out of my face you crazy paparazzi" type of attitude. In any case, capturing these kids with a natural smile will be an ongoing challenge.

Life on the West Side

Thought it was about time to get a family blog together so we can keep in touch with friends and family, and share pictures of all the happenings of the Deming Clan in Provo. I couldn't think of a better way to kick of our family blog than by showing our most recent exciting adventure, a local drug bust. Cops, shake downs, stake outs, and patting the guys head when he gets in the car, the whole nine yards.

So to start with, we had just come home from the train station trying to see a train; instead we came home to an ambulance and a fire truck. We had hoped everything was alright, then right at our corner an undercover vehicle pulled over a truck and a bunch of people ran up to the truck, pulled the passenger and driver out and threw on the handcuffs. So what else could we do but break out the camera.

Well as with a usual drug bust, there were several Police cars parked outside the home.

Then a guy with a Cell phone came out, but we couldn't really hear him since a Train was blaring its horn.

Then more cops showed up.

Then of course they search a vehicle. The original Truck that as pulled over was already searched.

Some of the undercover cops.

Why is it that undercover cops always seems to be stocky bald guys?

Just a shot of one of the Police Vehicles. By now I switched over to the Nikon for a closer zoom, but since it was so dark, the auto focus was no doing well, and it was difficult to manually focus, but I did the best I could. I also had to expose the picture for like 3 seconds and my remote control battery was dead. Just wish I could have pulled off sharper pictures but oh well. I will do my best to save my photo-talk for a photo blog, but sometimes I need to throw out a disclaimer or two for blurry pictures.

We knew something was up since the van parked near our house was not the usual van. Also the truck on the other side of the street we believe was a stake out vehicle. We had notice the truck there several times at different spots during the last couple of weeks. We thought our neighbor had bought a new truck, but apparently not.

The funny thing is, one evening when the truck was out there we had to deliver a gift to someone in the ward anonymously so we thought we would play the part and dressed in hooded sweatshirts and act stealthy to scope out the home, then finally late that night we did deliver a package. If there indeed was someone staking out the neighbors, I am sure we drew some attention that evening.

This was the original truck that was pulled over. After being searched in the middle of the road they pulled it up to our Accord.

This is the part where they hold the guys head so he doesn't accidentally bump his head on the way into the back seat. I believe in total 3 guys were taken away.

Just another pic of the guy in the back seat.

And after some shuffling around and some drawn out talking all the stocky bald headed men packed up and went home.

It was quite the adventure, not something you see everyday. It turns out that the family that lives in the house next door was still there afterwards which makes us happy for the children. Over the past year we have watched that household more than double with occupants so it is our theory that our neighbors are good people trying to support friends and family, and unknowingly were housing some guys who just were not choosing the right. We hope the best for the family, and we will be sure to document any other such exciting events.