Starting off my post with a couple pictures from Anthem this winter. Why? Because everyone loves to tell me how hot Arizona is when they find out I live here like I don't know that. Yeah it gets hot. But our nose hairs don't freeze in the winter!
Dean at dinner time.
I decided if Natalie wants to decorate for Christmas she needs a reindeer wine holder. Somehow my Jack ended up in it one night and the elf on the shelf had a little too much fun.
Dean likes to help out with all the cleaning. Here he is cleaning up a mess he made on the floor.
The Hatch's annual Christmas party.
A week before Christmas we met up with my niece at the train park did the Christmas lights train ride. The last time we did this was three years ago with our friends from Florida, the Schloffmans. Well as the train was coming into the station and there in line to get on the next train was our friends, the Schloffmans, who we hadn't seen since last time we did the Christmas light train rides three years ago. The train ride is free but they do ask for a $5 donation per adult to expand the park. The train goes a couple miles through the desert and they have over a million lights setup. It was a lot warmer than the last time we did this. I just remember being really cold in line last time.
One more I decided to teach the kids how similar Satan and Santa are. It was still early and I wasn't fully woken up but move the n before the t and there you go.
It was a fun dinner. They were playing songo (bingo with songs and a crazy dj) and we had a nice waitress. She was a little crazy though. I had a long island and a beer with dinner, which is fine, we were there for a couple hours. But as we're sitting around wasting time, burning off the alcohol Natalie decides she wants another. So they bring her the wrong one. Waitress told Natalie to take a sip anyways. So I took a sip and it was the best drink I've had there, it was a berry long island. So the waitress tells me I can have it for free. Told her I have to pass, I'm driving. She mumbles something then says but don't listen to me I've had four DUIs. Um, yeah... I don't even know what to say about that one. She ended up taking the drink back and said the kitchen staff got to enjoy it.
Helping Zach with his new legos on Christmas.
A couple days after Christmas I went up Daisy Mountain. I've hiked that mountain so many times but no two hikes are the same. It had been raining a lot that week and I was starting my hike the clouds were hugging the mountain peaks.
Looking down at Gavilan Peak.
Right before New Year's we drove out to SoCal to see family. I ended up crashing at something like 10:30 on New Years and when Natalie came to bed and everyone left my sister's house I thought it was after midnight. I got up to get water and it was 11:40. I thought it was funny that no one made it til midnight. But once I'm up I don't go back to sleep easily so I ended up being away at midnight.
The day after New Year's we went up to the snow. This was my sister's bright idea. She thought the day after New Year's everyone would be hung over at home. It was over 2 hours up and 3.5 hours to get home. That won't happen again. But we did get to enjoy the snow for about an hour. Dean didn't know what to think of it at first but ended up liking it. Especially when I would help him throw a snowball that would hit someone.
Here is Dean doing his happy dance after nailing someone with a snow ball.
Someone threw snow in Adri's buttcrack.
Bad Grandpa
And good Grandpa
This year we had Dean's birthday party in SoCal. A little highlight on Dean's second year.
Dean has been the most difficult child. For 18 months a real pain in the butt. I think he took it serious though when we joked about leaving him in Canada on vacation. He decided to turn a new leaf this fall. He stopped his constant clinginess and crying and for the most part he is happy now. He sleeps in his own bedroom and when it's bedtime he lets us now. He'll start showing us his belly button. For some reason he's obsessed with it and loves showing it off before bed. Then he'll give me a kiss, then Natalie, then me, then Natalie, until he gets tired of it. Then he grabs Duck and Bear and goes tells us night night. We often wake up hearing him having conversations with Duck and Bear in bed. He'll hold them up in the air and make them talk to each other. He'll usually stay in bed over an hour now after waking up before he starts crying to get out. Dean loves trains. He doesn't talk a lot but he does say choo choo, nana (for banana), go go, walk, and a few other things. If this was my first kid I'd be worried. Adri talked early but Zach refused to talk. Dean is a lot like Zach in that way. He's very smart but he refuses to talk. He always gets this face like he's trying to hold in a smile (see picture of him on the train below). He still loves the It's Always Sunny In Philidelphia soundtrack and likes to watch That 70's Show with us at night. He loves to make messes but he also loves to help us clean. Dean understands that you bang your head during metal. I couple weeks ago he was sleeping in the truck on our way back to Arizona and when he woke up to my music he started shaking his head. And the one of the funniest things about Dean is that he is terrified of the printer in my office. One day I came home and he was perfectly fine. Came up to me and gave me a hug then grabbed my hand, took me to the office, pointed and the printer, and started crying.
My dad has had this train forever a long time and used it at Zach's birthday. The problem is you have to hold the button down the whole time for the train to go. My dad fixed that with duct tape.
Dean blew out his candle on his own this year.
Opening his presents.
Our last day in California we went to LA to see a band we really like called Epica. I saw them a couple years ago in Santa Ana but Natalie had to miss out because she was pregnant with Dean. This concert was on the edge of skid row, just five blocks south of the financial district, at the Regent. If anyone has been following the news on San Francisco and LA, it's not an exaggeration. It's a real poo hole. It took us a while to figure out where to park so the truck wouldn't get stolen. Once we did park, about 3-4 blocks away, we had to walk past buildings were people were pooping by the doors and leaving piles of toilet paper and rivers of piss. It was absolutely disgusting.
The last time I saw Epica all four bands were good. We were not that lucky this time. The first band was some weird band from LA where they dressed almost like Renaissance but all in black. The girl opens her mouth and it was the worst screaming you could imagine. Expectations weren't very high for the next band, given their ridiculous name, Nekrogoblikon. Another band from the LA area. One of the members of the band does absolutely nothing but walk around in a goblin suit playing imaginary instruments and acting stupid. The only thing I understood out of four songs was a line where they said "What the f*** does it matter anyways". They were absolute trash.
But then of course Epica was amazing, as always. They are a Dutch Symphonic Death Metal band with a female vocalist that does opera type singing. Their guitarist does some backup vocals, about 10% of the vocals, and he's a growler. The contrast between the two is what makes it so awesome. It's like yin and yang, dark and light. And their drummer is insane tearing it up on double bass. One of the best drummers I have seen. It was a fun night despite being in an abosolute crap-hole part of the city,state,country,world.
The weird dead goblin humpers or whatever they call themselves.
Epica is less afraid of the American flag than the NFL and they're not even American.
One of the last pictures of the glorious beard. I got sick of the maintenance so it had to go. Sick of having food in my beard or having hairs curl up and go up my nose.
A couple weeks ago I looked over while Dean was eating and he was trying to do the airplane while he feeds himself.
Zach at Anthem Park.
Adri put Dean to sleep in this swing at the park.
This week when I was working Dean came into my office. I had some music on and he was banging his head. He's still working on doing the horns.
Playing with the kids. They like it when I put them on my knees and flip them. Adri was playing too but she was the photographer that day so no pictures of her.
There goes Dean.
Adri putting Dean to sleep.
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