Paddling Puget Sound

Around Aug. 11, Brian (Evan's brother) and two of his kids - Shauntel and Sheridan all drove up from Gilbert, AZ to enjoy some cool northwest weather.

We headed up to Hood Canal (where my mom grew up, part of Puget Sound, WA) and caught hundreds of little crabbies,

and hundreds more...

and there were all different kinds, and we just couldn't get enough of those little guys.

And, we finally figured out a way to keep Bryn contained in the tent.  She never kicked us once, so we may have to bring this kayak on all our trips, whether there's water or not.

The kids LOVED their older cousins - Sheridan and Shauntel.  They are SO cool, we all agree, and wish they lived a lot closer.

The kids kayaked all over, and the water was crystal clear.  We could look down 10 feet and see star fish and stuff.  Very cool, and actually not that cool to swim in.  It was almost warm - for the northwest.

Evan's sister, Laura (with new baby Avery - thanks for havin' another cute baby, Laura!) and Evan's brother, Brian.

Grant and Cole with cousins...

And Bryn wading around.

Making smores

Bryn and me cruisin' around.

Grant got into the kayaking more than anyone - it was his kind of sport!

Cole and Shauntel.

Thanks for a great trip, family!  It only took me 6 weeks to get this posted! Seriously, that's really good for me, these days.

Gap-Toothed Grin

Nearly nine months after his twin brother lost his first tooth, Cole has finally done it.

I never saw a boy so happy to have a mouth full of blood.

Youth Conference Hit

I was asked to "direct" the Abinadi vignette for our multi-regional youth conference in June. I said yes, hoping that the best director anywhere (my friend Mona Zabriskie) would actually direct, and I would try my best to organize everything else. After a whole bunch of miracles, this thing came together with the funniest bunch of guys in the stake.

Evan was a brilliant King Noah, with a touch of Shakespeare, and a couple tipsy priests, plus Alma and Amulon. Here he is giving his "state of the kingdom" address.  "All is well....yadayada..."

Then scolding Alma for standing up for Abinadi...

and several of the youth wanted to have their pictures taken with the cast after. They were stars!!

And since there were 1500 youth from several stakes and cities in Oregon and Washington there, our guys performed the play 6 times in a row! And they got funnier each time. Brad Wilcox, the keynote for the 3 day conference, gave rave reviews, and said, "it's like a Saturday Night Live skit!" And many more things did he say, which were all good. Thanks Brad!

Now some might be thinking, "funny? What's funny about the Abinadi story with all the cruelty and burning at the stake?" Well, we had to make a little fun of the foolish king and his worthless priests before Alma and Abinadi brought home a powerful performance about standing for what you believe in... the theme of the conference.

The conference was so power packed - and a spiritual boost like nothing else.  I just kept thinking of my own little "stripling warriors" at home, as I watched the closing night in a packed high school gym.  Stay strong, kids!  

Relative Filth

Cousins make everything more fun...

because you can get away with a lot more.

Monster Cookies

Cookie making contest results:
Cole: 6.125"
Grant: 6.5"
Bryn: 5 inches

It's hard to feel bad for the 2nd and 3rd place finishers when they're smiling like that. Of course, it's hard not to smile when you have a giant cookie in front of you.

Someday My Prince Will Come

Until then I can just play with frogs.

A House to Match Our Thumbs

We were determined to avoid the typical long cold spring of the Pacific northwest this year so we invested in a little greenhouse.

Everyone was very excited to plant their seeds and watch them sprout.

Look at them grow!

I can almost taste the cucumbers now.

Now who will help me weed the garden?

Lego My iPod

Grant is very interested in the latest gadgets. He's got a knack for building his own devices.

He built his own computer out of an old keyboard and a flat panel Lego display.

He built his own iPod and listens to his favorite music on it. He tells me his favorite is a song called "Bustin' Burgers". He claims he wrote the song himself. I believe him.

He built his own cell phone. We get great reception in the house but it's a little hard to hear when he's outside.

And he built his own iPad. Here he said he's playing "The Cookie Game". Sounds delicious.

Chez Crunchers

A few weeks ago I arrived home from work to find that a restaurant had opened in my living room. There were only three diners and they were all eating strawberries and cream and drinking out of fancy glasses.

If you'd like to dine at our exclusive establishment, reservations are recommended.
18% gratuity automatically added on parties of 6 or more.
Our dress code doesn't require pajamas, but they look pretty comfortable to me.

Spring Has Brought Me Such a Darn Surprise

We drove by our neighbor's house and observed the ground beneath their cherry trees covered with petals.

Sue: Look! It's pink snow.

Grant (mad about an unrelated topic): It just a bunch of darn blossoms.

The Luveing Book

I think this is Cole's kindergarten masterwork. He brought this to me tonight and asked if this was how to spell "loving". I lovingly explained the slightly more correct spelling and then read the rest of his book, filled with more loving phonetic misspellings.

The cover is simple enough: the author's name, the book's title, and a sticker with a picture of a pill bug. Nothing says luveing like a pill bug.

Inside the front cover is the first real hint of brilliance. The protagonist declares that, "I Go with My Mom to my friends hoAoos."

Turning the page we see a series of wavy lines. We can't know what they might mean until we look at the facing page.

"I an t i ritinge crsiv." Now it all becomes clear. He is writing cursive and the wavy lines obviously represent lines of cursive text.

On the next page and its facing page we see a chiastic couplet, entirely free of creative spelling. "I love Mom."

"My Mom loves me." Even the pictures are mirrored.

Another page, and our hero is blasting off, "I am fiinGonArockeT", the words compressed as his body experiences the G-forces typical of space travel.

This rectangular motif on the facing page may represent something to do with flying on a rocket but the symbolism escapes me at the moment.

Turing the page we see the astronaut back on earth and going from outer space to the inner space of a body of water. "I Am swimming." he declares, as if he dares anyone to contradict him.

The page facing the swimming has a very abstract feel, similar to the rectangle of the previous page but more random in its execution, and the single word title "celr." declares that this image is the author's homage to color.

We turn another page and the colors from the rectangle and "celr" have organized themselves into a pointed arc overlaid with a bold declaration containing my favorite creative speeling of the book, "I like ranboose". Despite the non-standard color spectrum (not to mention spelling) it's easy to see that he does, in fact, like rainbows.

Facing that page, the rain gives way to sun and he is back in the water. "I amm swimming." The crooked purple smile reveals that he enjoys swimming very much.

As he returned to his beloved swimming hole, he also returns to writing in cursive with the soothing green waves of stylized writing and his final declaration, "I am ritinge crsiv."

I hope you have enjoyed Cole's book as much as I did. Look for the sequel to be released soon.

Dare to Dream

I played Life with the boys tonight.  Grant started out as a policeman but after a midlife crisis he switched careers to "Superstar".  He seemed to like the change although he missed being able to confiscate $5000 from the rest of us when we'd spin a 10.  He started saying, "Superstar!" at random times for the rest of the game.  After the game ended, (Grant won with $2.1 million) he got up for a moment and returned to the table but somehow missed the chair and fell on the floor (this happens a lot with Grant).  A few seconds later he peeked up over the edge of the table with one last, "Superstar!"