Just in time for the stinky part

Pictures from a kid view point (Isaac took these with his camera)

Here are a few Laurelin moments from this week:
We were watching Return of the Jedi and talking about how Princess Leia is a “kickin’ butt princess”. Then Laurelin says, “I really like Princess Leia, she’s just like me!”
I was just about to change Gwen’s poopy diapers when Laurelin “rides” by on her stick horse. She stops, looks at me and says, “Oh man! Just in time for the stinky part!” and rides off again.
A few minutes later she rode past Grandpa calling out, “Ride like the wind, Windrider!”
We went outside on a walk and she looked at all the trees and flowers and said, “I love feeling Spring wake up.” That’s my girl

Another Xander philosophy on life: “People’s lives are their batteries.”
One of Gwen’s favorite books is called “Fly Guy”. There’s a part when he flys around for a long time and the page says, “Fly Guy flew on and on and on and on….” over and over and over in squiggles all over the page. She had the book in the car and I heard her saying to herself, “on and on and on and on…” It made me laugh.
Yesterday was Rus’ last Saturday training day. In the afternoon the kids and I went up to Salt Lake for a student bellydance show. They were, as stated, just students, so it’s not like the show was great or anything, but it was fun anyways. It was worth it just to see Laurelin clapping along with the music for the performers, and being excited that there were kids on stage too. I think it also felt good just to know that I can take the kids out and do something interesting and have time together to enjoy even if it’s just me there-I’m not completely helpless, “if that makes any sense….”
After the dance show we picked Rus up from the zoo and went to the Utah Puppet Follies in Sandy where Max was to perform. Then we ran back home for Catalina’s first birthday party, where Rus and I performed never rehearsed, completely improvised versions of The Three Billy Goats Gruff (the billy goats being played by a chameleon, Kermit the Frog, and an elephant, and Goldilocks and the Three Bears, or rather, Ollielocks and the Three People.

idioms and stuffed waterfowl

The boys at Discovery Gateway






















3 kids and a perhistoric croc skullat BYU "bone barn"
Mom with us at Monte L. Bean Museum--waterfowl exhibit



The kids and Rus were both off for Spring Break this week, it was good to relax a bit and we did several fun Spring Break like things. Wednesday Rus needed to go up to the zoo to complete some of his animal handling training, so the kids and I hung out in the zoo for a while, and then after Rus was done we all went to Discovery Gateway for a while. Thursday we went to the dollar theater to see the Spiderwick Chronicles, I saw only about half of it since Gwen just doesn’t watch movies yet (not entirely a bad thing), but at one point the kid in the movie screamed at his mom that he hated her. Xander immediately looked up at me and said, “I would never say that to you”, and hugged me. It’s good to know I’m loved.
Here’s another bit of Xander wisdom. We were at the dinner table and Xander puts his chin in his hand, sort of slumped down a bit and says, “Sometimes righteous people struggle through life.”
Last night we went over to Julie and Justin’s house for dinner. The kids had hotdogs and roasted marshmallows over the fire in their backyard, and the grownups had sushi. It was really good to hang out and visit, and our kids get along really well.



Friday morning we finally finished filming the movie we’ve making with the kids of Snow White. We started this project back in February as a birthday present for my mom, but being us, it’s just now getting finished. So…at least we’ll have it for when we go out to California. Maybe we’ll figure out how to post it to the blog when it’s all done.



Laurelin played Snow White, and did a great job if I do say so. She put in all kinds of funny touches, her facial expressions and hand gestures etc. When we filmed the poison apple scene her fall to the floor was great, she just crumpled, I think we may have an actress on our hands.





Overheard in the car yesterday:


Isaac: “I want to be a knight, a chemist, a paleontologist…”


Xander: “You’re biting off more than you can chew!”


We visited the BYU Dinosaur Museum, and the Bean Museum with Mom this week. It was fun, though a bit rushed. Gwen was evidently impressed with the ducks, as she asked to take a picture with one, and experimented with combinations of the words “duckie” and “pretty,” to finish off as we left with “bye-bye pretty duckie!” This is not the only semi-sentential utterance she has produced this week. She stacked a toy bottle on top of her real one and declared, “baby ba-ba on my ba-ba MAMA!” (The word “mama,” when produced with a special tone, emphasis, and hand motion, means, “big.” )

Gwen and Isaac at Discovery Gateway

the place Eskimos go to freeze...

Kelly and I had a marvelous time in Southern Utah, as she accompanied me on my work trip. We stayed in a cozy little cabin near Panguitch Lake. It was a lovely way to commemorate our 10th anniversary. This was despite the weather. Panguitch was described by more than one local as "the place where Eskimos go to freeze to death." They weren't far off; I made the mistake of leaving some liquid chemical solutions in the car overnight, and those that could freeze did so. Luckily, we were able to thaw them in time for the following presentations. All of the schools were small, and so there was proportionately less preparation to do than the usual; Kelly's help also meant that we finished much more quickly than I would have been able to do alone. This gave us some more free time to just be together. On the last day, we took a scenic route home and were glad we did so. We started out in Panguitch's snowy weather, and dipped down into deep, more temperate canyons, which featured spectacular views, then back up into the snow, several times. We passed several deer, saw hawks diving for prey...some brilliant blue birds...even a small herd of pronghorn antelope along the side of the road. Picutures are worth more than words, though, I think:



Our cabin!























The view from our cabin
Kelly at the first school
A scenic turnout







"The principal's stomach"









Kelly's favorite valley shot;
a high point

Not a pronghorn antelope--a Triops

I think I made up a "Deep Thought," but I'm not sure if it's original or not. So, stop me if you've heard this one:

"They say it takes a village to raise a child. To raze a village, on the other hand, it takes a horde of heavily armed barbarians, or a decent-sized dragon."

Gwen made a knock knock joke the other night at dinner. It went like this:
Gwen: knock knock
Mamma: who's there?
Gwen: duckie
Mamma: duckie who?
Gwen: Raya! (that's what she calls her cousin Mariah)
She's starting to add more words to her vocabulary, we think she's probably hit a point where she'll start talking more pretty soon.
Isaac drew some pics yesterday, I love watching his artistic progression. Check out the teeth on this guy...

Spring is springing backwards?

Greetings all! It’s April! Amazing! In true Utah fashion the weather now in April is acting less Springlike than it did in March, but it should warm up again soon.
While we lived in Laie the local movie rental place was also a CleanFlicks. So for our kids going to CleanFlicks was synonymous with going to the movie rental store. So this week when Laurelin saw a commercial on another DVD for “Over the Hedge” the conversation went like this:
Laurelin: You know, I would leally like to get that movie from cornflakes sometime.
Mamma: You mean from CleanFlicks?
Laurelin: Yeah, clean flakes.
Gwen added a new word this week. She found a rubber duckie dressed up as a pirate, Apparently she really liked it because she grabbed it up and said “Duckie!” We went to the zoo yesterday for a bit while Rus was in his training for that day. She had lots of fun pointing at all the ducks (and geese and pelicans for that matter) in the pond and using her new word.

I am excited about the chace to take Kelly with me on my work trip down to Panguitch, Circleville, Tropic, and Escalante. Kelly found a nice little cabin for us to stay in down there, and so this will essentially be our 10th year anniversary trip. It should be a lot of fun. I need to present at four schools, but they're really small schools, so there are not as many materials to lug around or prepare as there have been on past trips, so we'll be able to relax and have fun, too.

Yesterday at the zoo I got to work with an armadillo and a Virginia opossum, the first chance I've had to meet such creatures up close...it was an interesting experience.

Here's my legal disclaimer: The material on this website does not endorse Hogle Zoo, nor does it necessarily reflect in any way the opinions of the management thereof.