Reunioning

After a family reunion at a park in Salt Lake City, of which this was the most exciting picture we took ...

we headed up the canyon for 20° cooler temperatures and a ride on the ski lift.

It was here on the chair lift that my sunburn kicked into gear.

Visible behind us are four nieces, one nephew and a sister.

Our goal, of course, was the Alpine slide. Cole rode with my brother Brian, who is Tony Stark in his spare time.

Grant got to ride with me. I'm just me in my spare time.

Bryn rode with our lovely photographer.

And we're off!

Down the home stretch come my sisters, Kay ...

and Laura ...

and my brother Dallan.

A special thanks to Utah for reminding us why we don't miss 100° weather.

Snap, Crackle, Pop

Our first day in Utah. Handing out pop-its to poppets, my brother looks like a mother bird, surrounded by her ravenous brood.

And like baby birds, pop-it seeking children are insatiable.

Later we headed down to a school parking lot for some more incendiary fun. Note Grant's presence. For the first time, he was an active and eager participant in Independence Day fireworks.

...while our littlest patriot retreated to the safety of the car.

Let's Get Hopping

Now that's what I call a frog!

And here's one closer to Bryn's size.

My Little Padawans

Recently, after I asked the boys to get their pajamas on, Cole chose his Lego Star Wars pajamas and remarked, "Star Wars jammies remind me of Star Wars."

That got me thinking. Those boys have never watched the real Star Wars. I decided to remedy that immediately and so we started watching Episode IV: A New Hope that very night. Cole sat there with rapt attention, not saying a thing. Grant kept up a constant barrage of comments, complaints, and irrelevant banter. Bryn fell asleep.

Bryn: I like Dark[sic] Vader
Dad: No! He's not nice.
Bryn: Yeah, he's a bad guy who hits other people

When Greedo pulls a gun on Han Solo, Grant: It's not nice to point a gun at someone else.

Trying to explain Darth Vader's breathing sound, Grant: They have to take his lungs out because he's not nice.

Grant: Why do those guys never change clothes?

What was your favorite part of the movie?
Grant: When they were getting squished.
Cole: My favorite part was when they got away. When they exploded the Depth Star. [sic]
Grant: Someone shooted an arrow and it hit it.
Cole: They got in little space ships.
Grant: They had to hit it just right, though.

Since then we've watched all of the movies except Episode III.

Grant: I don't want to watch where Darth Vader gets mad.

Cole: Dad I don't want to be a Jedi because I want to live with Heavenly Father faster. I'm just going to be a builder.

Grant: I don't like movies when they try to kill other people.

Watching Jar Jar Binks, Grant: What's wrong with him?

Noticing Amidala's frequent wardrobe changes, Grant: Why does she change clothes a lot?

After Qui-Gon-Jin is killed, Cole: Darth Maul doesn't know that he's going to go back to heaven.

Seeing Han and Leia and later Amidala and Anakin kiss, Grant: What are they doing?

All three of them call the Emperor, "The Emperator"

Welcome the wonderful world of a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.

Camping in the Great Northwest

Summer has been so busy in other parts of the country that it's nearly forgotten us up here in the Pacific northwest. It's been a cool and damp summer so far but we still managed to go camping ...

...at a lake ...

... with cousins ...

... and few other friends ...

... in a cave ...

... and in the snow ...

... near an active (within the past five years) volcano ...

... where we found nature ...

... and pointy sticks ...

... and that's what camping in the northwest is all about.

Father of Our Country, etc.

We were looking at some money and I told the boys that George Washington's picture was on the one dollar bill.  Grant said, "Oh, he's the prophet of our state."

Well, he is on the flag.

Wait 'till he sees who is on the $50.

The little dog laughed to see such spork

The boys had their first encounter with a spork^* and I asked them what it was. Grant said, "A spoon fork." Cole said, "A fork spoon."

Exactly.

And yes, that is a train on Grant's face.  And no, it's not written in permanent marker.

* We dine at only the finest eateries.

Cahoots

The tooth fairy brought a neighbor boy a train when he lost a tooth. Discuss.

Grant: How does the tooth fairy know what toys we have?
Cole: I think Jesus tells her.

Citius, Altius, Fortius

Grant: Dad, you're not the tallest. Jesus is the tallest.
Cole: No, uncle John is the tallest.
Grant: Yeah, but Jesus is stronger than dad.


They're both faster than me, too.

The Littlest Sith

We watched the second half of Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones tonight (more on that later) and after it was done Bryn left the room, only to come back in a few minutes brandishing a pink glow stick and declaring, "I'm bad guy with my light saver [sic]." Obviously the women and children were terrified from the attack.

I asked Darth Brynnie to pose for a photo and she gave me the following expression:

Ultimately she was defeated because the dark side of the force is ticklish.

I'll bet Darth Vader had pink monkey jammies, too.

The Mechanized Managerie

The following is an accurate transcript of Grant describing the robots he made with Legos. I don't know where he came up with the names but he was pretty consistent about them over the course of several days.

This is Antatockta. He's very good at flying but he's the most good at being tall. He's the most good at remembering. He's the most good at two things, the others are only good at one thing. He's very good at fighting.

This is Flyacogger. He's the most good at flying.

This is Sollacleaner. It's the most good at cleaning. This one is the mama because the window only reaches to Antatockta's neck.

This is Sollacogger. It's good at changing into other things, like other robots. But it just can't change into this one (Flyacogger) because it doesn't have enough blue.

This is Windowbetter. It's the most good at making windows.

This is Steadycogger. The baby is the most good at standing.

These robots all live in Idaho.

Scarily Delicious

I was making cookies for my class and when I was almost done Grant asked if he could help (and by "help" he meant "eat dough").  I said, "I'm afraid not; I'm almost done."  He replied, "You don't have to be brave for this."

I gave him some dough.

Early Mother's Day Present

The best presents sometimes come wrapped in Santa Claus jammies.

Cookies, Eggs, Chicks and Friends

Let's start with some cookies - a very important part of Easter. Now, I actually made these because I was helping throw a baby shower a few days ago, then I was all cookied out by the time Easter actually came. But they're festive, and delicious, and the recipe is at Our Best Bites.  Lot's of fun, if you have lots of time.

Next, our engaged friends, Hannah Zabriskie and Ken Allen came over for dinner and an egg hunt.  I rounded up our newest family members (in my arms) plus, we managed to get one cat tail in the picture.  No one wanted to hold my bunnies.  Weird.

Let the search begin!

Eggs are much easier to catch with fishing nets.

Or just borrow other peoples' baskets.

Warm Enough

How warm does it have to be before you strip down to your diaper and jump in frigid hose water (while dad rebuilds our pond)? According to Bryn, about 70°.

Grant got his swimming gear on, too, but his common sense kicked in before he got wet. Brynnie's common sense? Well, this is the extent of it.

The Eyes of the Beholder

The boys and I were looking at past blog entries and we got back to our Christmas dinner with the Zabriskie family.

While looking at this picture we had the following exchange.

Dad: Who's the prettiest one in the picture?
Cole and Grant, in unison: MOM!
A moment later, Grant: Really, Hannah is the prettiest but I just said Mom because I like her.

Bedtime for Boys

Picture this: it's 8:30 PM; the boys have been "in bed" for a half hour. Suddenly they emerge from their room. Accusations are exchanged. Basically, there's too much talking going on. My solution:

Silence is golden.

Lego Language

The boys were playing with Legos together. I overheard several interesting exchanges over the course of the afternoon.

Cole (in his growly voice) : I'm still nice but I still kill people!


Grant (the manager): I know just what I want to do so if you're out of work I'll give you more work.


Cole: You're too smart!
Grant: Do you think I'm smarter than you?
Cole: Yes

Up"lift"ed

I just realized I forgot to officially document Grant's day on the slopes!

We went to a different hill than I took Cole.  This is "Summit" at Mt. Hood.  It's very small - only one little double chair lift, and we never waited in line once - on a Saturday!  Naturally, the chair lift was his favorite part.

He did great!  A little grumpy towards the end.  (And by grumpy, I mean screaming at the top of his lungs for all to hear, "I HATE SKIING!!!!!" over and over, among other things.

So we packed it up, at that point, and he was happy again.

I love you, Grant!  Good work!

And all the way home, he said things like, "Mom, I love skiing, can we come back tomorrow?"  Four and fickle.