Vacation

Ah... sweet escape. I'm in Baltimore for the weekend for the blessing of my new nephew, Cael. My flight Thursday night was delayed by 2 hours, but it didn't bother me much, for reading a book with no one to distract me till 1:00 in the morning is a heavenly way to pass the time.

I went to Washington D.C. with my dad, sister, Lani, brother Chris (newly returned from his mission in Hong Kong) and my unofficial future sister in law Lauree. We toured the capital building and saw such wonders as a statue of Brigham Young in the Hall of Statues, the House of Representatives and the Statue of Freedom (see below) Then we wandered around the WWII and Lincoln Memorials. At the WWII we took our picture in front of the Hawaii pillar at the WWII memorial becuase that's where our next family trip will be and found ourselves also in front of the D.C. pillar, where were were at the moment! What a coincidence!

Today, Dad, Chris, Lauree and I did an early session at the Washington D.C. temple, which was really nice becuase even with the Chicago temple only being a little less than an hour away, it can still be hard to get there. We met Ryan, Adrienne, Lani and Mom at the Inner Harbour area of Baltimore for a delicious lunch and little touristy-ness. I got some fun treats for the kids which will doubtless be featured in a future blog entry. We came back to the hotel for a little downtime, where I finished of the book I was reading and then made my Dad take me to the bookstore to buy a couple more for the trip home.

It has been very nice to get away from my usual responsibilities and hang out with my family. Especially to see Chris for the first time in two years. I knew I was having too much fun when I got a call from Jason today and he had that tone in his voice that made me say "uh oh." My poor little boy fell off his bike and scraped up his face. J let me talk to Evan while he put Neosporin on his owies and I felt so bad that I wasn't there to hold my poor scraped up boy.

From the looks of the second picture though, Daddy knows how to fix sad scraped boys. Cookies, apparently, are almost as effective medicine as Mommy's kisses. Its good to know he's in good hands!

More Dinner Conversation

Me: Today was Uncle Chris's first day back at school.
Emily:........ preschool?
Me: NO. College.
Emily: What is he going to be?
Me: He doesn't know. Its kinda causing him problems right noiw.
Emily: Oh, so he's going to be like Daddy.
Jason: That's going on the blog, isn't it?

The true meaning of Halloween

Evan: Mom, what's that thing you say on Halloween?
Mom: Trick or Treat.
Evan: Oh yeah, I couldn't remember. But that's not the right way to say it. Its "sugar treat". Can we go home and watch the Dora where they go sugar treating?

A conversation while coloring

I'm sitting at the kitchen table and Dani and Evan are sitting at the kitchen counter coloring together -- and to my great amusement -- conversing. I had to open up the blog and transcribe a few snatches of their conversation.....


Dani: Mom! Evan doesn't scribble anymore!
Me: Great!
Dani: I taught him how to not scribble.
Evan: NO! Its because now I'm in carpool.
Dani: Well, I learned how to not scribble in OT (occupational therapy)
Evan: Well, I don't got to OT
Dani: I do, and I go to speech too.
Evan: Jayson (a kid in his preschool class) goes to speech.
Dani: Can he talk yet?
Evan: No, but I know how to talk to him.

Dani: are you good at coloring?
Evan: I'm good at Batman
Dani: I will tell you how I color rocks. I always color them brown or gray
Evan: Oh. I color them red.



Dani: Mom is this a good haunted house?
Me: yes, very good
Dani: Am I using first grade coloring?
Me: Yes, definitely
Evan: I'm using first grade coloring too!

Jason: Wow, Evan really is using first grade coloring!
Dani: Yeah, I taught him!
Evan: No....
Dani: Oh yeah, now he's in carpool
Jason: Somehow the relevance of that escapes me....

Evan: Is my tooth going to fall out?
Me: Yeah, in a few months probably
Evan: will the tooth fairy come?
Dani: No, Evan, you're going to have a boy tooth fairy. Emily said that boys have boy tooth fairies and girls have girl tooth fairies.

Dani: I don't want you to write your N like that Evan. This is a lower case n. Do it like this
Evan: But I don't like that kind of E.
Dani: Mom, I'm showing Evan how to write his name in lower case.
Evan: I KNOW how to write my name -- E-V-A-N. That's Evan.

It was fun to hear them actually talk to each other, rather than fighting with each other, or even rather than playing together, where they give each other their "lines" They were talking about opinions and things that happen in their daily lives and sharing their favorite coloring techinques. Ain't it fun when kids act like real people?

Beauty Regime

I decided to treat myself to a little mini facial today. I cleaned my bathroom as the mask dried and all the kids had an opportunity to come a see me in my painted glory. None of them liked it. Dani was pretty fascinated though, wanted to know when I was going to clean it off -- and whether or not I was going to put "pickles" on my eyes. I found her question amusing not only because of her misuse of words, but because the thought that I might actually have the time to have a relaxing, self indulgent facial, with or without pickles (or cucumbers, as the case may be) over my eyes, is more than slightly laughable.

Ready to Play

Think its time to buy Evan a new jacket? Maybe the very cool Batman sunglasses will counteract the very nerdy ill-fitting jacket.

Dinner Conversation

Evan: Are you married, Mom?
Me: Yes
Evan: When you get married, does that mean you like your 'chother?
Me: Yeah
Evan: And that's when you pick flowers for each other?
Me: (laughing)
Dani: No, that's when you go on a honeymoon!

Mess

I guess I can either have a cute blog or a functional one. I have been trying all night to get my archives to work, and voila! I have finally succeeded. Unfortunately, at the expense of my cute template. Oh Chris..... do you still have copies of the files for that template you made me months ago? Maybe I corrupted the files somehow.....