Rey is now in first grade, and every Monday the kids write about what they did over the weekend in the Weekend News. This one was on Tuesday because of Columbus Da...I mean Indigenous Peoples Day (whatever).

For background, as Columbu...I mean Indigeno..oh whatever...it was a holiday, and Rey went to Lake Temescal with his friend Milo. Rey's story of the visit to the beach begins below. Don't forget to click the pics to enlarge them! You will want to look at the pics he drew at least.

"I went to the beach and I went on the life guard station. It was very fun and me and Milo chased each other"

"and we jumped off the life guard thing and did it again and again and we scared the ducks away and made bla-"

"ck water and black sand and we dug a hole and we played on the sand pile and we tried to catch pigeons and ducks but"

"we could not catch them and we had cookies and while we were playing on the sand pile we made big big"

"sand mountains and at the end I was very mad because Milo couldn't go to my house and"

"I stomped on my hat and yelled. The end."

...Like I said...It speaks for itself.

Your guess is as good as mine....

So, in May we went to Redding and stayed at Jeff and Ann's house in Palo Cedro, and went to the annual Redding Rodeo! Here we are in the stands. I lost my lenscap.

Rey, who had some blue ice of some kind, was very interested and attentive, and took more than 100 shots with my digital camera during the spectacle.

Yes, he turned his tongue totally blue. Dude.

Rodeo is really pretty fun to watch. Cruel? Maybe yes. Spectacular? Sometimes.

Barrel riding is mega awesome...

Rey's favorite part was the one armed cowboy who herded two giant buffalo onto the top of his truck. He loved that part.

Bull riding is scary. Very very scary. I do not care to try this.

Nicholas got very very tired. Oh so tired.

The next day, Lisa made a silly face.

Carolyn tried to stay cool.

She succeeded, and was fresh as a daisy later. I love that woman.

The sisters hugged and everybody said "awwwwww".

Meanwhile, Rey twirled his thingie,

Nicholas prepared for battle,

And gave it to Jeff (I told him to wear a cup...).

Afterwards, he took his frustrations out on Mr. Semicolon.

hehehe.

And finally, Rey spent a good bit of time working on his favorite activity...

Until next year! No more Rodeo. It was fun...but will we go again? There is some debate. Some members of the family feel it is too cruel. Others...not so much. Can you guess which?

Bye bye!

Six years old and as crazy as his dad.

Wow. I love this movie.

Another Star Wars movie, but with a bigger budget and greater production values. He actually hired an amused camerawoman for this one...

Wow. So we got this video camera for Christmas, thanks to Mom and Phil, and suddenly...we have a budding filmmaker. George Lucas got nothing on this kid...

We had an amazing sunset. Sailor's delight, baby!

What happens when two boys have one Spiderman costume each?

Nuff Said.

Twas the nght before Christmas and all through the house, C was going batty trying to get Gingerbread houses assembled before R's friends came over.

He was so intent.

The unbelievable concentration...

Until I tickled him.

When it was all over, he was happy.

And slowly but surely, the house was eaten. Much of it anyway.

This last weekend, we went out to the Pumpkin Patch with L/A/N and Jeff and Ann in what is rapidly becoming an annual outing. Despite 12 dollar pumpkins an excellent time was had by all...particularly when the bouncy castle is a half hour for five bucks...Oh yeah!

Then, a little wheelbarrow ride:

And finally, and investigation in Pumpkin city. Here Rey is showing Nick something.

It looks interesting.

It looks very interesting.

Wow, that was interesting.

At last pumpkins were picked and paid for. Before we leave the pumpkin patch, however, here is one shot too good to leave out.

And, back in Fairfax, after a nice dinner, the boys bathed and tossed on their PJs. They look happy, yes?

This last weekend Rey embarked on a frantic regimen of drawing posters, all of which were then taped to the walls of his room. Thanks to the magic of the digital camera, I present to you:

Rey's Online Art Show!

First, a traditional rendering of his favorite superhero, swinging on a web.

And a more classic rendering of Buzz's good friend Woody:

Their compatriot Rex:

And, as balance is essential, a Monster:

On a another theme, here is the amazing abstract I call Noisy Baby:

The Halloween classic, say no more:

And a soon to be world famous celeb, Hot Ralph:

The lesser known Crazy Ralph:

And finally, Dead Bob:

Comments to tom (@) wintrompo.com.

There I SAW A BIG CREATURE THE SIZE OF A HOUSE. It almost ate me. I screamed in surprise and shock. Then me, Rey, bit the monster?s ear.

Well it was kind of fun but actually not. And I was really really really really really really really really really really warm. So I loved it and I went to Jupiter. And then it was time to go. And I explored space.

THE END
by Rey

Phil holds court on the beach, his audience is rapt with fascination. All are attentive, and...but what's this?

Carolyn is not paying attention! How could it be? Ah, I see, she's found something. She is pulling on it. What could it be?

What is it?

Ah, Orange Woman, squeeze me some juice.

Gather some wild oranges from the jungle. In a bag. And put them in your shirt. Yes, just like that. Good.

Now bring them inside. Squeeze them. Squeeze them. Yes yes, that's it. More.

That's what I like. And smile while you're at it.

Good. That is good.

No.

And there never will be.

Now stop arguing.