Spotlight

Max's favorite part of primary is spotlight. I know this for two reasons. #1--We play spotlight at home all the time! (Thank you for the flashlights Grandpa!) Max turns off all the lights in our house and repeats the entire spotlight poem while walking around the room, shining his flashlight, until the light lands on either me or Jack. Then, he'll ask us some of the spotlight questions and it's someone else's turn to be in charge of the flashlight. #2--Every week in primary, when the leader announces it's time for spotlight, Max always says loud enough for everyone to hear, "Spotlight is my FAVORITE part of church!" A dead give-away. Today Max was the spotlight. When the light landed on him, he could hardly control his excitement. He stood up quickly and galloped right to the front for his moment of fame. Here are some of Max's answers to the questions:

What is your favorite place to travel? New Jersey
(Follow-up question: What do you do in New Jersey? Play with toys)
Where is somewhere you want to travel that you've never been? Texas
Favorite thing to do in San Francisco? Eat food
Favorite temple? Oakland
Do you play an instrument? No, but I want to play the trumpet
What do you like about your mom? She plays games with me
What do you like about your dad? He wrestles with me
What do you like about yourself? I like games
(Follow-up question: What game do you like to play? Go Fish)
What is your favorite sport? Tennis (But actually, when I first asked him the question he said the airport. Get it--his favorite port, as opposed to the boat dock or train station.)
What is your favorite movie? Land Before Time
Do you have a pet? No
If you could have a pet what would it be? A horse
(Follow-up question: Would you keep the horse in your house? No, my mommy says it would poop in our house and make it smell. She says we can only have a turtle.)
What's your favorite part of primary? SPOTLIGHT!
What's your favorite primary song? Sunbeam

And then we sang the Sunbeam song and you better believe no one was jumping higher on the "beams" than Max. I could not wipe the smile off my face the entire time. Oh, I love him.

Friends Who Have Friends

It's nice to have friends who have friends in high places. Especially when that friend is someone like the very, very famous Ronald McDonald. In preparation for the big meeting, I showed Max pictures of Ronald on the internet. He told me that he didn't want to see him. But when I explained that Ronald was the one who made the french fries and would be handing some out, he quickly warmed up to the idea. Even to the point where he posed with his arms out, just as Ronald asked him to, for this picture. Maybe there is hope for Santa this year, afterall.
As for Jack, well, he kept a very, very safe distance from Ronald. He mostly stood in the corner and kept an eye on Ronald to make sure he didn't come too close. Don't worry, he still got some french fries, too.
Thank you to Angela for inviting us and thank you to Hillary for driving us! :) We love, love, love our friends!

Vuelta Pacifica 2009

When I was in Utah I got copies of ALL the pictures from ALL the cameras at the Vuelta Pacifica Tour from Portland to San Francisco. And since Blake won't narrate*, I'll just post my favorites with some quick captions and for more information you can read Andy and Bri's comical account. What an amazing 8 days and 650 miles!

The group
Beautiful scenery

Blake loves sunsets!
The food.
Landmarks:
Redwood Forest
Paul Bunyan and Babe
The rock that looks like a face
Feeling good.
Feeling not so good.I love the hold out the camera shots.
Before crossing the bridge, they all stopped to get ice cream at our favorite Sausalito spot.
The finish line: The lovely Golden Gate!
Neither of the boys wanted anything to do with Blake. In fact, they were scared to death of him. What a nice welcome home!I still can't believe they really did it. Congratulations to all the riders! What an accomplishment! Anyone want to sign up for next year? (Not I!)

*Blake would like to thank his wife and kids for letting him spend half of summer break on this trip; nanny and grandma for being in the crowd celebrating the triumphant--and delayed--finish; his dad--though slightly embarrassing to have your dad constantly have to slow down for you and be in such better shape--for coming, being patient in the mornings, and setting up/breaking down camp; his crew chief Evan for the occasional ride and excellent breakfasts, lunches, and refueling stops; his sponsor AB Bergeson who provided his hat, jersey, arm warmers, gloves, shorts, knee warmers, socks, jacket, bike (Thanks Jeff), vitamin I, tune-ups, and company at the back of the pack; and the entire Vuelta Pacifica crew...it was an amazing trip.

A Night on the Wharf

Tonight we thought we'd join the rest of the San Francisco tourists along the crowded wharf for some sour dough bread, clam chowder, fish, and french fries (the boys' request). The best part of the night--watching Jack taste the lemon, make his sour face, then sticking his tongue back out for more. I love San Francisco.

Hello Baby

This week I'm 100% sure that it's Baby I've been feeling fluttering around instead of...something else. Hunger pains? It's nice to know that Baby says hi back to all the tackles and hugs from its big brothers. We are so excited to be a family of 5 (FIVE!!!!)!

What About Jack's Weekend?

After all the begging and pleading from our Utah family, I broke down and brought Jack with me to Utah instead of leaving him for the Boys' Weekend. Other than ride on an airplane, I'm not sure what Jack did the rest of the weekend. Grandma did such a good job of keeping him away from me! Doesn't that sound like a nice mother? But that was my weekend alone, so don't try to make me feel guilty. What I can gather from the pictures is that they built some big towers, had some sleep-overs, played in the tunnels, and had a picnic. Grandma also must have taught him some big-brothering skills. And even though I didn't get to sit and read my book on the airplane, I like watching Dumbo, too. I love Jack!

While Mommy's Away...

The boys play! And since Blake is way more fun than I am, they did things like wash the car and clean Max's teeth. And they also did some good eating. On Saturday for lunch Max chose the restaurant where you dip your sandwich in jam. He even waited nicely with Blake in line for over an hour for the yumminess. Blake decided to take the opportunity to try something other than the Monte Cristo since he was sure he would be eating at least half of Max's. Sorry Blake. Max ate the entire thing and wouldn't share a little taste. That's my boy. For dinner Max chose chicken and french fries (McDonald's) but Blake told him they could either have chicken and french fries then go home and go to bed OR have salmon then go home and watch a movie. So salmon at Pacific Catch it was! And I have to admit, I loved my Costa Vida salad Spanky's sandwich, and Nielsen's frozen custard, but just looking at this picture of Max licking the jam off his finger is making me crave a Monte Cristo big time!

10 Years

Is it just me or is there not a single one of these girls that looks a day over 18? :)
After being quite skeptical, I am now a 100% fan of high school reunions. I loved everything about this reunion. The only thing that could have made it better was Michelle. We missed you Michelle.
And the best part about the reunion was getting to spend the entire weekend with Kristen. It's been a long time. We had so much fun getting pedicures, eating out, shopping, going to the movie, eating some more, and talking and looking through old pictures. I hope it's not quite as long before I see her again--I really, really like her.

Sweet Reunion

We spent all day playing with our friends we miss so dearly. It was just like old times. (Old times being 2 months ago.) We spent the entire day playing, picnicking, and talking at the park, then couldn't quite say good-bye. So we moved to mall and shopped, played some more, and ate dinner together. It's nice to have reunions.
This is a picture of the kids playing a game of duck-duck-goose that they initiated on their own. I love how they sit in a straight line instead of a circle.

Exhausted

Our trip to Arizona really wore us out. Really. Our flight left yesterday at 7:30 am, so in addition to all our non-stop fun, we had an early morning wake-up call. Then, after some short naps on the plane, after we got home we were going a little stir crazy and ended up playing at the park. I had Jack home in bed a little before 2 pm and Max and I played until 3:30 when I gave up and turned on a movie and soon Max was also a goner on the couch. I stayed awake until 5, when Blake came home for some quick dinner before heading to work before I zonked out on the couch. The next thing I knew, it was 7:30 and Blake was home from work. Both boys were still asleep, I was still sleepy, so I went back to sleep. The next time I woke up, it was 10:00. Baby and I were hungry. So I ate a bowl of cereal and went into the room to sleep with Blake who was also dead to the world. The next time I woke up, it was 2:00 am. Max wanted some water and I needed to make sure Jack was still alive. He was. Then Max and I went back to sleep with Blake in our bed. The next thing I know it is 8:00 am and I can hear Jack talking in his bedroom.

{Picture of boys sleeping at the airport, waiting for our very delayed flight. 2/2009}

I know that was a fun-filled story, which could basically be summarized as follows; but I'm long-winded, I can't help it.
Blake: 11 hours of straight sleep
Addi: 15 hours of on-and-off sleep
Max: 16.5 hours of sleep, with one break for water
Jack: 18 hours of STRAIGHT sleep

Back to Arizona

Even though we were in Arizona a mere three weeks ago, there was so much we didn't get to do, that we had to go back. We spent an entire {ENTIRE} day at the lake. I was exhausted at the end of the trip and I never lifted my bottom of the seat. So, I can only imagine how tired Blake was after swimming and swim-wrestling with all the boys, tubing, wakeboarding (by himself and also with each of the four willing boys), and also managing to drive the boat crazy enough to dump Grandpa and two sweet nephews off the tube.

We went to the most fantastic birthday party ever. There was pizza, salad, fruit, popcorn, sno-cones, cotton candy, a pig, cousins, and lots and lots of water! Of course Max was as happy as could be, and surprisingly, so was Jack. He loved splashing in the pool and even went down the big slide. After Jack went down the slide he kept saying, "Nemo! Nemo!" and we thought he wanted to go down the slide again. But turned out, all he wanted to do was sit on the big fish at the bottom of the slide. All of this, of course, was happening when he wasn't busy chasing Snoop Hog. Thanks BTKs for the fun party! I even brought some cotton candy AND pirate cake home with me to keep the party going.
But the best part of all was attending the baptism of the sweetest 8-year old on the planet. Jace has been such a good example to Max and it has been fun teaching Max all about baptism then going to see Jace get baptized. We love our family.