Riding the Bus

I think Blake likes his phone. Who cares about the wi-fi and calendar that originally sold him on it. Let's talk about the games! Oh, the games! Twice Blake has missed his stop on the bus because he was too busy playing games on his phone. And not only did he miss the stop, he rode the bus to the end of the line where the bus driver stopped the bus and had to tell him to get off. Both times he's ended up walking the entire way home.Also, on a riding the bus note, I was looking through my 2007 blog book and was noticing my posts about every little thing Max did. Even his first ride on the bus. So, I just wanted to note that Jack went on his first bus ride September 27, 2008. We rode from our house to downtown to meet Blake at work and go out for some dinner. Jack loved waving at the other passengers and watching the doors open and close. Sorry, second child. I'll do better recording momentous events in your life from now on.

The Rest of the Holiday

Is it really already over? Here are some highlights from the rest of our holiday.

A small group of family got together to celebrate Blake's birthday. I think the best part of the day was when Blake was presented with the phone he's been wanting ever since he saw Tony's in October. Unfortunately, they're impossible to find, but fortunately Tony was willing to upgrade and let us buy his phone. Even if we didn't do anything else the entire week I think Blake would have been occupied figuring out his new phone. A birthday success. Blake made his debut appearance at Kangaroo Zoo and I think he thoroughly enjoyed it. This was also our first visit with a mobile Jack. Just Jack walking through the bounce house created enough of a bounce to knock the poor guy over. Good thing he always had a smile on his face. And I think Blake enjoyed Kangaroo Zoo. Of course he had to create some competition, just going down the slides wasn't enough for him. Blake set up a race course, set a record time, then Andy came along and beat that record time by four seconds. I think Blake wanted to race again, but there wasn't enough time. It wasn't enough that he beat my time by 1 minute and 30 seconds! :)We attended this year's annual family post-Christmas party, where I was asked to fill some pretty big shoes and be this year's photographer. This is a big deal. Seriously. I was sweating bullets while Blake was setting up the tripod for the group picture. I'm proud that in the best picture I got, my son is picking his nose. I hope I never have to do that again!
Andy and Bri taught us how to play Canasta to fill Blake's competitive needs during the week. Too bad Blake and Andy got whooped by the girls in the first several games. Bri and I even got all four wilds two games in a row! (Unheard of in one game, let alone two right in a row!) One night Andy and Bri invited us over to their house for dinner and more Cananasta and that night Blake chose the right team. Geri could only carry me and Andy so far and we ended up losing. Big time.
And we went to see the beautiful Christmas lights at the Salt Lake Temple and test out Andy's new camera. Too bad it was so darn cold or we could have stayed and looked around all night. We had so much fun spending time with our family in this wonderful state. We are so grateful to all our babysitters who made it possible for us to watch another season of Lost and catch up on our sleeping. We are also grateful for Tony's razor, that did the dirty work and removed Blake's beard before he returned to work this week. What an absolutely perfect White Christmas!

Let It Snow

The first day we were here, Max stepped in some of the snow. Ever since then, when anyone left the house, he made sure to warn them, "Don't step in the snow. You get wet." So, today, we decided to toughen Max up and remind him how fun snow actually is. Plus, this was Jack's inaugural sledding experience, so the snow was under a lot of pressure to perform. And luckily it did. It snowed all last night, so we woke up to some fresh powdered just begging to be sledded upon. Once we got every one's snow gear on, which was a feat all on its own, and everyone was looking very Christmas-Storyish, we hit the hills. We started off with a few test-runs down the driveway where we learned that it was probably a tad too cold for Jack to go solo, but just perfect for Max.

After the test-runs we headed to the big hill to start some real sledding. Blake even had to blaze our trail in the fresh powder.
Then, Blake and Max tested the integrity of the trail.
After the men decided it was safe enough for the women and babies, our little family gave it a go.
Apparently, all that extra weight made the sled steer off the trail and we ended up engulfed in a big cloud of powder.
Max kept yelling, "The snow got my face wet! The snow got my face wet!" and he was absolutely right. Poor Jack.
We thought the beard would be beneficial in keeping Blake's face warm, but it did just the opposite. He had icicles stuck in it long after we were finished sledding.
We gave it another go with Grandpa as part of the train and the same thing happened. Only this time Grandpa was smart enough to let go of Max so he'd stay on the trail and keep his face a little less wet.
After a few more runs our sledding was over. We got some hot chocolate that warmed us right up and was the perfect end to our sledding. And everyone (but Jack) agreed--SNOW IS FUN!

Merry Christmas!

Our very merry Christmas was filled with--
Giving

And Getting

Unwrapping
And assembling
Surprises
And games
Food (mostly candy!)
and lots and lots of family!

We spent the day before Christmas visiting Grandpa Phil and Grandma Faye, where Grandpa quickly won over the boys with lots of M&Ms, before our regular Eve activities at Great Myrtice's house. We had a scrumptuous Christmas Feast, exchanged gifts, and read the Nativity story. Lori even started a new tradition--a white elephant ball which gifted everything from erasers to money and gift cards.

Max woke us all up at 9:00 Christmas morning. Poor Baby Jack wasn't quite ready to wake up and didn't know what to do about all the excitement. We were spoiled rotten by our wonderful family and, although I don't even want to think about going home, I can't wait to get home and try out our new stuff! Blake pulled off the biggest Christmas surprise and gave me my first ipod, allowing me to officially enter the year 2003. :) I love it and hopefully it will give me the incentive to exercise more since now I can get super pumped up while listening to "Eye of the Tiger." I love my family. And I love Christmas!

Snow Bunny

Even though I'm a pretty hardcore snowboarder now, can I still be called a snow bunny? Today was my first attempt at snowboarding and I totally think I ripped it up. My only wipe out was when Blake got in my way and I fell over him. Every other time I ended up in the snow was by my own choice--sometimes there's just no other way to stop. I had some excellent teachers helping me out. Blake and Andy did a good job holding on to me and I only cried once when Blake thought I was ready to be let go of when I definitely was not. And Bri was such a nice ski-cheerleader. She was always telling me how good I was doing, that's how I know I'm basically a pro now. All this I did in a mere 9 degrees, snowing weather and I didn't even notice one bit. But my biggest accomplishment of the day was getting off the lift four (yes 4!) times in a row without falling down! Success! Thanks Dad for sponsoring my snowboarding debut. I can't wait for next season to test my mad skillz.

Three Unforgettable Decades

Today my husband has been alive for three decades. And although I've only known him for 8 of those 30 years, I think Banana Republic is right. It has been three unforgettable decades. Happy Birthday Blake! I love you!

Birthday Weekend

For Blake's birthday, I think he got the best gift of all--me! :) After dropping Max and Jack off in Utah, I came back to San Francisco to surprise Blake with a no-kids early-birthday weekend! It was just too bad Blake had school all day Thursday and Friday, then scheduled patients on Saturday. But despite that, we've managed to do some pretty fun things. We went down to Union Square to look at the big Christmas tree and do some shopping. I know--I'm sure that's what Blake wanted to do for his birthday, but at least he got to take a quick nap in this pretty chair.
The last movie Blake saw in the theater was Harry Potter-4, over three years ago. We saw it in the IMAX and I was super pregnant with Max. Anyway, the movie cut out for 20 minutes, so the theater gave us free tickets to come back to another movie. This weekend we decided to finally cash it in. We saw Seven Pounds. Blake wasn't impressed and now it will probably be another three years before he sees another theater movie. But we've made up for it in our down/late night time. We've been seeing what the big deal is with Lost. Blake watched 6 episodes of Season 1 the first night. I think we're hooked.
And the food, oh the food. I love eating out with my husband...for EVERY meal! We also discovered the world's best hot chocolate at Seattle's Best. It was so good and so pretty.

But the highlight of the weekend was definitely the go-car tour around the city. We've been wanting to do this for so long, and finally, with no kids, had the opportunity. I think Blake was in heaven driving this thing around town, listening to all the interesting facts on the tour. And as an added bonus, he only had to stick his leg out to push once when we didn't have enough power to get up a San Francisco hill. We felt like celebrities with all the Asian Tourists taking pictures of us!
I love this beautiful city, but not as much as I love Blake!