Grandpa Max

On Saturday, July 28, 2007, my Grandpa Max passed away from complications of leukemia. That morning I got to talk to him on the phone and tell him how much I love him. Max and I flew out to be with our family the next morning. That night at our regular 5:00 dinner at Grandpa and Grandma's house we told funny stories about Grandpa and even enjoyed one of his favorite desserts--hot chocolate pudding with a scoop of ice cream.

I was lucky enough to grow up 10 minutes away from Grandpa's house and saw him several times each week. Grandpa played catch with me in the front yard, taught me how downs worked in football, and attended all my dance recitals, sports games, and school events. Grandpa is the one who so subtly told me that I looked silly when I chewed gum and talked me out of doing it. I didn't know at the time that advice would help me attract my future husband, who hates to be around people chewing gum. He also gave shocking kisses, literally. Every time I left his house and I went to kiss him goodbye, I would get a static shock.

A viewing was held on Tuesday, July 31, and the funeral on Wednesday, August 1. During the family viewing a couple hours before the real viewing started, Max was so concerned about Grandpa who was "sleeping." As we were getting ready to leave, Max kept going over and pointing to Grandpa and doing the sign for "sleeping." He didn't want to leave him there alone. Blake was able to fly in and surprise us for the funeral. I was so happy to have him there. My mom gave a wonderful talk and my dad did an excellent job dedicating the grave. Along with my cousins, Blake, Andy, and Tony were pallbearers and Max was an honorary pallbearer. It's always amazing to me how one person can affect so many people. During those two days I met a lot of people who Grandpa influenced in several different ways.

I am so lucky to have a Grandpa who was so involved with my life. I know without a doubt that he loved me. And I am a proud mom to know that I have a son who is named for someone I love very much, who has left an outstanding legacy for him to follow in and look to for guidance. We love you Grandpa!

We Can't Get Enough of This Place

Max and I convinced Blake to take us to Chuck E. Cheese and we learned it is much more fun being a kid when Daddy is there to be a kid with you! Max hardly spent any time on his favorite yellow car ride. (Plus, it kind of had an odd stench to it so we tried to steer him clear of it...) We even watched part of the Chuck E. and Friends Concert. It was quite the performance. Max also had time to perfect his skee ball form. He found an over-handed throw worked best to get the ball up alley...or up the alley next to him. Blake and I were so proud as all the tickets started rolling out. Max was able to buy himself a plastic airplane that lasted all of 10 minutes with all his tickets. We even came home with extra tokens we had so much fun on the non-token toys. So you know what that means--there will be more Chuck E. Cheese in our future!

4 Generations

Lately I've been thinking about how lucky I am to have had all four of my grandparents live close to me while I was growing up. And not only have them as a kid, but also to have ALL four of them while I've been an adult. They are all very important to me and have influenced my life deeply. Grandpa Phil is the silly, story-telling jokester. Grandma Faye is full of all the facts and keeps Grandpa in line. Grandpa Max is the example of hard-work, church service, and SPORTS! And Grandma Myrtice is the lover--always holding your hand or squeezing your knee. And if I feel lucky, Max should DEFINITELY feel lucky. Not only does he have all four of his grandparents, he also has six great grandparents! Grammy and Grandma Dorothy are very special, and just seeing how much they always want to see how big Max is growing and know what we are doing makes me feel like our family is so blessed. Here are all four of Max's four generation pictures. Lucky guy. I only have one four generation picture and Blake has none. We love grandparents!

Blake, Max, Great Grandma Dorothy, and Nanny

Great Grandpa Max, Grandma, Max, Addi, and Great Grandma Myrtice

Grandpa, Great Grammy, Max, and Blake

Addi, Max, Grandpa, Grandpa Phil, and Grandma Faye

Happy Pioneer Day!

I am proud to be a Utahn! I love Utah! And since Max is one half Utahn, but probably won't ever live there (I'm still trying my hardest to change that, though), I feel like I need to help instill the same love I have for the great state in him. Today was the perfect opportunity to do that. While all of Utah was enjoying parades, bbqs, and fireworks to celebrate the day the pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley, I was here in San Francisco trying to think of what we could do to celebrate. Other than wearing his best cowboy shirt and last year's too-small cowboy hat (which Max had to put on himself), singing "Pioneer Children Sang as they Walked," and saying "This is the Place" everywhere we went, this is what I came up with--a covered wagon. I am lucky I had Michelle and Audrey to be the creative force behind my not-so-well-planned-out idea. I didn't have any obvious supplies at the house, but Michelle was able to think of excellent alternatives for everything--hangers, pillow cases, and even an alternative for my "measly" camera. And although our wagon would not have made it very far along the Oregon Trail, I felt satisfied in my Days of '47 attempts. Happy Pioneer Day everyone!

Welcome Home Gage!

Today Gage gets home from his mission in Illinois! I'm a little disappointed that he didn't stop in San Francisco to say hi, but understand that he wants to get home to his new room Nanny put together for him. So we'll have to wait for our reunion in August. I don't feel that bad, however, since I didn't go an entire two years without seeing him. Last March while we were in Chicago, Beth and I drove to Mattoon to see what Gage's mission life was like. We had fun spending a p-day with him--playing pool, enjoying some mid-west Mexican food, and checking out his very clean missionary pad. Max, on the other hand, is dying to see Gage! Since they've never met, Max has only heard stories and seen pictures of his uncle. But I'm pretty sure they're going to be good friends. And Blake's excited to see Gage and make sure he knows that even though Nanny did the room for Gage, it's still Blake's room. :) Welcome home Gage--we love you!

I Didn't Win

A few months ago I went to the San Francisco Birth and Baby Fair. Among all the booths, free food, and hand outs were also a lot of drawings. I signed up for so many that when I got called about a week later, I had no idea what I had even won. Turns out I won a 3D Ultrasound for Brother. I was so excited. I have never won ANYTHING. And this was something pretty cool. So, this week we had our appointment. When we got there we learned that I really won a free ultrasound upgrade. Which meant we still had to pay $200 but then got a $250 package. After unsuccessfully negotiating with the manager and thinking of all the other things we'd rather do with $200, we turned around and left. So, instead of being able to post pictures of Baby Brother, here's a picture of Brother's home for the next few months. This is a 28 week home that seems to be growing much too quickly. He'll be here before we know it!

Bird Watching

What started out as a simple trip to Golden Gate Park to feed the ducks turned into some serious bird watching. Of course there were ducks and seagulls (no pigeons, they must be on summer vacation) but there were also two other birds I couldn't identify. By posting the pictures I may be admitting my bird ignorance, which could be devastating to my dad who knows way too much about birds, but then how am I going to learn what we saw? So here goes nothing...

Here's the first specimen. Is it a crane? A heron? A stork? Am I making myself sound really stupid?And here's the second. She's kind of hidden down on the bottom left and has red patch around her eye and white on her wing. She was protecting her babies and started to get really upset when Max got close.So, any ideas? And by the way, the feeding part of feeding the ducks was a bust. The only thing I had to feed the ducks was gold fish crackers and apparently ducks don't like their cheesy flavor. Even the seagulls wouldn't eat them. Good thing Max will eat them so my bag did come home a little lighter.

Utah Family and Friends!

We had lots of fun visiting so many people in Utah the past week. We felt so loved to spend so much time with everyone we love. I didn't get a picture of everyone, but here are the ones I did get--

While we were in Utah County we went to lunch with Blythe. Max even let Blythe hold him. A definite improvement. Maybe it's because he liked Blythe's pretty new shoes.

We went to the park with Michelle, Sally, and Adri. Michelle and I learned that we are the only parents crazy enough to take their kids to the park in that hot summer weather. We spent a lot of time eating snacks in the shade and catching up. We're glad they're much closer than Philly now.
Griffin invited us over to check out his new pad. It was beautiful and we're very jealous. Even though the two boys haven't seen each other since Max was 3 months and Griffin was 2 months, Griffin walked right over to Max and gave him a big hug! They are kindred spirits. I'm sure they'll be roommates at BYU just like their mommies.
Max played with Deacon and Abi almost every day. We are so happy they were down visiting. We found the best way that they played together was when they each had something of their own, so the three-headed sprinkler was ideal.
We went over to Grandma and Grandpa J's house every day to play. Max loves playing Grandma's organ and pushing all the buttons. He also loved jumping on Grandpa's bed. Max is lucky that Grandpa's name is also Max so he had to be nice about all the bed shaking.
And I don't even want to think about how much time my mom spent sitting in the car with Max so he could drive. I think that was Max's favorite activity this trip. He was lucky he was surrounded by all those suckers again.
And these are the things we did that I wish we had pictures of--Grandpa playing with Max in the backyard and pushing him on the swing. Andy and Max doing their touch down dance after spiking the football (Max even woke up one morning saying, "Andy, ball, Andy, ball."). Max constantly bringing Bri her water bottle. Tony and whoever he was hanging out with the whole time we were there since we hardly saw him. Girls' Night at the paper store--the best find was the $10 grab bag that weighed over 5 pounds! Geri doing Super Man to Max. And Dawna teaching Max all about fry sauce. We love our Utah family and friends so much and can't wait to bring Brother to meet them all at Thanksgiving!

Reunited!

Today we ventured down to Utah County for a much anticipated reunion. And it was like nothing has changed. There was still hugs, "sharing", nose pinches, jumping, and, of course, lots of screaming! Seriously, no one understands Max's screams like Sammy. The kids took a quick dip in the blow-up pool, sprayed each other with the hose, played with all the cool toys, and ate a yummy lunch. It's hard for me to watch Max casually say bye-bye like he'll see Sammy again tomorrow, when really I don't know when the next time will be. Baby Charly will probably be walking all around and Sammy may think Max has boy-cooties. Good thing I have so many pictures to remind him of the "good old days!"

Happy 4th of July!

We had a fun Utah 4th of July! There's just something about hot, hot, HOT weather that makes the watermelon taste better, the fireworks look bigger, and the water that much cooler. We started out the day by going up to Ogden to visit Grandpa and Grandma B. After catching up on how everyone was doing, Blake suggested a game of Skip-Bo. Grandpa and Grandma are die-hards and were ready to teach us a thing or two. They both kept trying to cheat and look at other people's cards or "suggest" moves, but we were on to their tricks. After playing two games so everyone had the chance to win, Grandpa pulled out his stash of ice cream and shared with us. Max was in heaven! After we got home and took our naps, the BBQ and swimming started. Well, swimming only for those daring enough to get in. We had three very cute takers, many enthusiastic spectators, and one hoovering lifeguard--way to go Geri! This is the best picture we got of the three swimmers in action. When the kids got out of the pool, it was time for some friendly adult competition. Horse shoes! I'm not sure which team ended up winning, I'm just POSITIVE it wasn't my team. The top three runners were Dad and Bri, Mom and Geri, and Blake and Andy. But after I see this picture of Blake's excellent form, I wouldn't be surprised if Blake and Andy took it all.
After Blake's victory, he and my dad took a motorcycle ride up the mountain while Max posed for some pictures. Doesn't he look like a happy guy wearing his new hat?

We ended the night with fireworks and sparklers. The perfect 4th of July!