Max's Vacation

Now that I've covered what the rest of us were seeing and doing on our vacation, here are some of the highlights from Max's perspective. It's an entirely different vacation when you're 17 months old.
Driving the wagon across the west
Driving the 12 passenger van across Missouri and Illinois
Partaking from every drinking fountain we found Climbing trees Being such a good boy on the 5-hour drive from Independence to Nauvoo and then back. He seriously slept almost the entire time. He was one sleepy boy.
But the biggest highlight of Max's trip was definitely the elevators. Elevators at the hotel, elevators at the visitors' centers, and elevators at the airport. He liked the elevators so much he even added the word to his ever-expanding vocabulary. Luckily Max was surrounded by a lot of suckers who couldn't say "no" to him when he'd go up to them, sign "please", pull on their pant leg, and say "ella." This was the best trip ever!

Trip Update

We are having a fabulous time this week visiting church history sites. Since Tony recently returned from Independence, MO, he has been the perfect tour guide. This silly computer at the hotel is giving me problems with uploading pictures, so I'll wait till I get home for a complete trip review. But here's a clue of where we are today. This city is "beautiful." (Another clue...I'm practically giving it away, aren't I?)

The Stables

Today we went to the horse stables in the Presidio with our friends. We hate this time of year when all the third year dental students are getting ready to leave. But we also kind of like it because they are trying to squeeze in lots of fun San Francisco activities and they invite us along. During the 4 1/2 years that we've lived here, we've hardly done any exploring in the Presidio. At the stables we got to go around and meet each horse, watch a horse get saddled, then feed the horses apples and carrots. This is the best picture I could get of Max with the horses--
Where is he running off to you ask? Well, he would rather play with his favorite animal--the much more complex and entertaining pigeon. Lucky for us, the pigeons hung out up by the manure so we did kind of get the whole horse idea.
Thanks for the fun time friends!

It's a...

This morning, bright and early, our little family went up to the hospital for our fetal ultrasound. Max was such a good boy. During the ultrasound he kept pointing at me and saying, "Mama" then pointing to the screen and saying, "Baby." That, of course, was in between the "More! More! More!" for some granola bar. The doctor said that little baby is looking excellent. Strong heart. Smart brain. This baby has everything. Here are some pictures she took. They even put them on CD for us. Hospitals are getting very advanced nowadays.

IT'S A BOY!

Summer Buzz

What kind of a Mother's Day is this?!? Blake forced me to make my baby grow up today. I'm still in denial--I have a plastic bag full of curly locks that I pull out, look at, and cry to every once and a while.

BEFORE


DURING


AFTER

Wallyball Baby!

Blake decided to join us in Utah tonight, so of course we had to go play wallyball! It's his favorite. It's so much fun that Matt even drove up from Orem to join us. We were a little worried that Tony may have lost some of his wallybally skill while he was on his mission, but nope. He had some awesome dives and spikes. But I have to say, Bri and I definitely were the stars of the game. We knew when it was time to duck in the corner and just stay out of the way. :) These are some of my favorite action shots. Just look at Matt's jump kick!

America's Favorite Game Show

WHEEL! OF! FORTUNE! Yes, Max has jumped on the bandwagon with the rest of America. He loves Wheel of Fortune. In fact, it is the only show or movie that he will actually sit and watch. He loves his Baby Einstein, but gets distracted, walks away, and then comes back to it. With Wheel, it is half an hour of endless fun, or endless clapping. Max is so proud of himself as he claps along with Pat, Vanna, the contestants, and the rest of the audience. I've been trying to get a picture of him watching his favorite show for quite a while, but when I pull out the camera he always stops clapping. So, my mom was the big picture winner this week. I think Aunt Ashley is going to be so proud. She's the best Wheel player I know!

Welcome Home Tony!

He's home! He's finally home! I can't decide if those two years went fast or slow. Either way, he's home! And surprisingly, he's quite normal. He's even the same old Tony. But I think he's grown taller. Maybe it's just me, but I don't remember him being so tall. Max even likes the stranger. He was a little confused when we got home and there were two Tony's--the real Tony and the life-size cardboard cut out Tony. But once Tony crawled through the tunnel to get in the tee pee I knew they would be good friends. So, WELCOME HOME TONY! And, p.s., didn't Bri and I make an excellent sign? Andy added the arrow through the heart. A nice touch, I thought.

There Are Animals at the Zoo?

If there are, Max doesn't know it. Or maybe he just doesn't care. Yesterday for playgroup we went to free day at the zoo. Well, not the whole zoo. Mainly just the petting zoo. He was scared of the goats (mostly the only thing in the petting zoo) and would rather stand by the gate to let people in and out. Such a gentlemen. This is the only picture I got of him looking at the animals. Doesn't he look bored, resting his chin on the fence?
But don't worry. The trip wasn't a failure at all. What it was lacking in animals it made up in rain puddles. The splashing started out innocent. Just a stomp here and there...
Then, of course, the next logical step was a splash with the hands...
And hey, why not just get down on all fours? This zoo stuff is great!
And after all that splashing, or course Max was thirsty. We love the zoo!

Head Bangin'

Well, Max is definitely his father's son. He already has all of Blake's dance moves down--front and back head bang and side to side head bang. Too bad he gets more interested in the camera than dancing when I pull it out. And even more too bad that his mom ruins the video with her lame singing/rapping voice. So, enjoy Max's moves. The song even came on at the perfect scenic moment in our drive. We love San Francisco.