Happy Birthday Grandpa M

It is Fabuloso's Grandpa's birthday today. He is 80 years-old! We are so excited for Grandpa and are sorry we can't be with him to celebrate. He is lots of fun; we love it when he comes to visit. He tells great stories and jokes. The first time I met Grandpa was on my honeymoon. Fabuloso's grandparents couldn't come to Utah for the wedding because his grandmother was in bad health. Instead, we went to them. We would spend the whole day visiting with Fabuloso's grandparents. We usually stayed until 10 p.m. On the second or third day, Grandpa says to me, "What time you two going to bed after you leave us?" He was barely able to contain his laugh. But his twinkly eyes gave him away. Grandpa has always been a tease and prankster.

My mom has been asking me to show everyone a picture of Grandpa when he was younger because Fabuloso and the Prince look so much like him. But, alas, the picture won't upload. I will have to work on it, or better yet get Fabuloso to do it. Here are some other pictures from Christmas 2006 when Grandpa came to Utah.

Halloween Fun

V and The Prince loved Halloween. They had four different parties in addition to Trick-or-Treating. It was so much fun.

My sister always does a great Halloween party for the extended family. Her husband makes a great chili for the party. Everyone is supposed to dress up, adults too. I didn't get a costume together this year. I gotta start planning earlier. V is in the back being held by my sister.



The Prince was Buzz Lightyear. He loved his costume, but eventually he would tire of it because it restricted his movement too much. V was a pumpkin, because we already had that costume. At one of the parties I left her in her pink bear pajamas. I think she looks so cute in those pajamas. When else is she going to wear them out?



Trick-or-Treating was lots of fun. El Senor came along. The Prince was a little scared. At first he loved to knock on the door, but things quickly changed when people in costumes opened the door. He still talks about the witch that gave him candy. After that he wouldn't come close to the door until he saw that it was just a normal person who opened it. Then he would get the candy. One of his favorite treats was a toothbrush. He thought that was very exciting. The Prince actually enjoyed answering the door at our house the most. He loved to see all the kids coming to his house. He would help pass out the candy and yell, "Bye tids," when they left. He was elated.

Papa Outsie, the Bean, and R2D2

This was one of the memorable moments from the family vacation this year. The Bean gets very excited about R2D2. He also gets very excited about his Papa Outsie. This is what happens when those worlds collide.

NYC

October is a great month for our family. Fabuloso's Birthday is in October. To celebrate I went to NYC with my parents, sister, brother and sister-in-law. It was a great trip. Fabuloso stayed home to work and watch the kids. I was so sorry he missed his big birthday trip. Maybe next year.

I did have a great time in NYC with my family. Fabuloso was so nice to let me go. I think he had a fun time bonding with the kids. My sister's nanny watched the kids during the day, and Fabuloso got them at night. I left on a Wednesday morning and returned early Sunday morning. I went to four different Broadway shows: Billy Eliot, Gypsy, Wicked, and Legally Blonde. The first two shows were OK, but the last two were great and a lot of fun. We all did lots of shopping. I tried on all sorts of clothes and didn't end up getting a thing. I was very disappointed. Oh well. We ate great food. Almost every meal we had was terrific and reasonably priced. While walking around town looking for an open grocery store at 11:30 p.m., a stranger stopped me and my sister and wanted girl advice. He was in his early twenties, short, blonde. It was so funny. My sister couldn't get away fast enough. This is sort of a regular occurance for me. I am always getting strangers talking to me. I find it pretty entertaining. The one big downer of the trip was that I got super sick and lost my voice. My parents couldn't understand me, and my sister would have to translate. It was hilarious.

I do hope I can go again next year for Fabuloso's birthday.

The Last Hoorah at Lagoon

We took the kids to Lagoon last Friday as part of Captain F's Birthday celebration. They had so much fun. The Prince loves all the rides. He can't get enough. Baby V went on her first ride without her parents. She seemed to love it, too. The Prince took good care of her.

The Canadians up Weber

Fun was had by all those who went fishing. Papa Ou-sey, Murray, and Fabuloso had a great time fishing. My family had planted one of our lakes this summer. There are so many fish it is easy pickin'. It is a great place to learn. Even Richie would have caught something had he tried.















Fun was had by all who went horse-back-riding, even Murray ended up enjoying himself. He was nervous at first but got the hang of it quickly. We had a nice time. Senior did not get to ride much because he had to leave in the early afternoon, but he did a great job herding in the horses. Cicada didn't ride the horses. She was so great to always help take care of V.











































Fun was had by all . . . almost. There aren't any pictures of The Boy at the cabin because, quite frankly, we didn't see him very much. He slept almost the entire time. I really only saw him at meal time. But, when he was awake, he was great with the Prince.

Fun was had by all . . . almost when Richie, Ootsie, and Murray went "hiking" up the mountain to find an old cabin Jim Bridger had built while trapping in the area. Richie was the only one that enjoyed the hike. To be fair, it is a miserable hike. It is my least favorite hike I have ever done. It is really more of a scramble up loose dirt, shell, and scrub oak. There is no trail and it is very steep. The up part is tough going, but down is even worse. It is scary coming down and your legs get very worn out. A lot of people opt to go down on their bum.

The Canadians come to town

A good looking family (but this picture is missing some of the cutest members)















Captain F's family came to town for a visit/family vacation. Ootsie and Papa Ou-sey (that's how the Prince says "outside") and Richie (after Richie Tenenbaum) all stayed at our house. We always love having them here. There are lots of crazy antics with the Canadians here. Captain F's brothers, with his dad leading their efforts, always teach the Prince lots of bad bad things to do. You notice he is playing with a knife and a lighter at the same time. I obviously was not in the room at the time. The Prince loves it, of course. He thinks it is the greatest thing ever to have his Papa Ou-sey here and his uncles. He gets to spend all the time he wants outside, wrestling, running around, playing video games (Captain F bought Mario Cart just for the occassion), you name it. I will have to break the trip up into at least three posts to do it justice. There really is just too much to write and too many pictures to share.






























Speaking of the cutest family members . . .

The Homefront

My parents, sister and brother-in-law all went to Europe for their final hoorah of summer while I took care of the home front. I became personal assistant and secretary to my parents, as well as caretaker of my sister's kids. (My brother and his family helped, too.) Tomo and Jujuice stayed with us for a week. The Prince had the time of his life. He loved having his cousins sleepover. He tried to climb into bed with them to sleep a couple of times.

I think I did a pretty good job going from 2 kids to 4. I took them to Discovery Gateway one day. The Prince's favorite part was the helicopter. He is obsessed with helicopters. By the gibberish he spoke and the looks he gave me, I could tell he couldn't understand why he hadn't been here before. He was like, "You knew this was here all along and you never took me? It was possible to go to a helicopter and climb in and I never knew?" He has asked about it several times since, but I try to pretend I don't understand. I'm so bad.

Taking the kids to school was the hardest part for sure. We mostly were on time. I had to take them to their first day of school and help them find their classes. I loaded V in the baby bjorn and let the Prince walk. It was difficult to get the Prince to leave, of course. We also had to buy him a backpack of his own after he saw Tomo's and JuJuice's.

We loved having the kids. The Prince cried and cried when he saw them drive away at the end of the week. He really was heartbroken. It was so sad.

Hiking to Cecret Lake

On August 9th we took The Prince and V on their first real hike. We went with my sister and her husband and two kids. We were also joined by two of my brother's kids. My little family unit didn't spend much time hiking with the others because we were so slow. The Prince was a good walker, but he got distracted by every little stream we crossed. He wanted to throw leaves in the streams and watch them float down. He loves the water. Eventually Captain F, who already had V in the Baby Bjorn, put the Prince on his shoulders and carried him for a while. The Prince walked up all the switchbacks, though. He really had fun. On the way up, Captain F read a sign that said something to the effect of, "In a thunderstorm the temperature can drop 20 degrees at this altitude." We all thought that was an interesting fact. We were barely at the lake when the rain started to drizzle. We booked it down the mountain. Captain F carried the Prince the whole way down and I had V. Right when we got to the trail-head it started to hail. My sister and I, with our daughters in tow, stuffed ourselves into the shuttle bus and left the others hiding under a tree. They got the better end of the deal. When we got to the parking lot, we still had to run quite a ways to the cars. I covered V as best I could and ran. It felt like being pelted with marbles. Little V never made a sound, even though I know some hit her. It was a great adventure. We all did have a fun time. The funny part is that when we were packing up to go on this hike I thought to myself, "I should be packing each kid a sweatshirt and water. You never know when the weather can change in these mountains and you should be prepared." But then I remember that I over prepare for everything and haul too much stuff around. I told myself I was being paranoid. The one time I don't take too much stuff . . .

P.S. Another one of my favorite moments was trying to find a secluded spot to nurse V at the top of the mountain. There are always a lot of people traversing this trail. The best we could find was a rock, only slightly off the trail, overlooking the rock-climbers across the way.

Cousins Camp and Weber

We had our annual Cousins Camp at the end of July this year. It was so much fun. I left The Prince at home for two days with Alec, Her Majesty, and Tina, the nanny. My mom, She-who-must-be-obeyed, said he wasn't allowed. It was so easy not having him around. My mom, dad, cousin, and I took the kids up. We had a great time riding horses, teaching the kids to saddle, tie dyeing shirts, singing, playing hearts, enjoying the new sod around the cabin and river swing. It was great to be with the older cousins. They are each so wonderful, talented, and fun to be around. We all wished it would have been longer. Luckily, we came up a week later when my brother, Funny Little Guy, was in town. The Prince was invited this time. He had the time of his life. He loves to ride the "shooshes." Whenever he wants to see or ride the horses he spreads his legs out and bounces like he is riding the horse, then he yells, "Shoosh. Shoosh." I don't think I would have figured out "shooshes" was the word for "horses" without the action, especially since he started saying that when we were at home in Salt Lake no where near a horse.

The Beach

Here are several pictures of my family at the beach. The matching pictures were taken the night we tried to get a family photo for the Christmas card this year. The real family photo needs some photo shopping before it can be displayed. Good thing there is a professional digital artist in the family! I love this picture of V. I can't figure out why it won't display right-side-up. I will work on it.

Disneyland

What to do? What to do? I find I have an hour of free time, meaning I have an hour free from entertaining/feeding/caring for my kids, and a list of things that needs to get done. Top on the list is clean the house. But also on the list is blog. It was a tough decision.

We went with my family to California in July. We took the kids to Disneyland and Newport Beach. It was a blast. The Prince was in heaven. Instead of driving my spacious new minivan, we did the socially responsible thing to do and drove the Camry Hybrid instead. We were a little crowded in the car, what with all the gear you must back when you have little kids, but we were happy to save the money on gas. It worked perfectly. I think on the whole trip we only used 3 tanks of gas. Pretty great.

There are so many stories from the trip, it is hard to narrow them down. We left on a Tuesday night and drove to Las Vegas. We got to our hotel around 2 a.m. It was brutal. Captain F was so tired. I was so sick. I could barely speak, but I had to stay awake and keep talking so Captain F wouldn't fall asleep. The kids were great, but their kids. It was slow traveling. When we got to our room, it turned out we had been upgraded to a suite. There were 6 flat screen TVs in the place. It was awesome and completely saved Captain F, who was delierious enough not to realize we had been upgraded. He thought all the rooms in the hotel were like that. We were actually able to sleep that night because there were two separate bedrooms. We were in no hurry to leave the room the next morning and didn't leave until noon. Then we drove on to Disneyland. Again, it was slow going. My favorite moment was when the Prince started squirming and said, "Owie. Poo. Owie poo." And who can blame him for not wanting to sit in that?

The Prince fell in love with Disneyland right from the start. We went to the park that night and first took both our kids on Pirates of the Carribbean. The Prince loved it. He loved everything about Disneyland except for the end of each ride. He was pure joy once we would get on a ride, and completely heartbroken when we had to get off. Even though his emotions were like a rollercoaster, we loved taking him to Disneyland. We got a three day pass and really enjoyed ourselves. His absolute favorite ride was the Buzz Lightyear ride. He went on it 6 times.















































Next it was on to the beach. . . .

Fun at the Cabin

We have been up to the cabin lots this summer. The Prince loves it. But, really, what's not to love? You get to ride horses, have giant sleepovers, throw rocks in the river, play in the dirt, stay up too late, sing along with the guitar, and just generally run around. We have really had fun. The only sad part is that we miss Captain Fabuloso while he stays home and works. Oh, and the Prince has taken against my cousin's daughter, Lily, and now my niece, Butter. I can't get him to stop scratching their faces. I take comfort in the fact that my mom could never get me to stop scratching my cousin's, Hobie's, face when I was a toddler. If she failed, what chance do I have? She is much more scary than I am.

Daddy's Get All the Credit

A few weeks ago, I was home with the Prince. V was asleep. Senior had just stopped by. Captain F was still at work. It was around 5:30 in the evening. The Prince wanted a chocolate pudding. So, even though it was around dinner time, and he had not eaten, I decided to give him one anyway. I say that as though I actually make efforts not to feed him treats before dinner, but I don't. I am just grateful when he eats. He doesn't like to stop for food. Anyway, I sit down with him at the table and give him the pudding. He is so excited and starts yelling, "Daddy! Daaaadddddy! Daddy!" I say, "No, mommy gave you the pudding. Mommy" To which he replies, "Daddy!" So unfair. Which reminds me of a story about my mom. When my older brother, whose nickname is Little Brother, was in early elementary school, he was given the assignment to write one of his favorite things to do. He wrote all about how he loves to go horse-back-riding with his dad. My mom was furious. She was the one that took him horse-back-riding. Her family owned the horses. She claims my dad didn't take him once, and if so, certainly not without her. To this day for Father's Day my brother writes a card to my dad AND my mom.

A Bean in the Pool

We're going to try again with a video of the Bean going off the diving board. It is one of his favorite things to do at his "Boc's" (Grandpa Doc) house.

A Mix of photos

We have tried to upload a video of the Prince jumping into the pool, but it won't work. We will have to compress it. Until then, here are some photos to peruse.

We just sold my Honda. I owned it for 11 years! The Prince loved to play in it. One day, about 2 months ago, he was out in the car. I was carrying groceries inside and let him stay to play for a minute. When I came out to get him I noticed he had pulled out a pack of tiny batteries from the glove box. I asked where one of the batteries had gone. He pointed to the tape cassette deck. Sure enough, he had shoved a battery in. Luckily, it still worked, because there was no retrieving it.





I was busy one Sunday morning trying to get ready for church and this is what the Prince was up to:














He loves to mix things. He had carried all this from our kitchen to the living room.

Here Captain F is showing the Prince the fountains at The Gateway. He didn't like them too much, but he did love Ben and Jerry's ice cream. He ate almost the entire ice cream on his own and a mango smoothie, too. He wolfed them down. Mom and Dad barely got a taste.

















And here is a beautiful picture of little V (I think this is the blog name that will stick, but who knows?). She is darling. She is rolling over, which started May 17th. She is just a little sweatheart. We are so lucky, especially since the Prince is turning into a terror.

May is a busy time

I can't believe I never posted during May. It is such a crazy time. Our wedding anniversary is May 7th, then there is Mother's Day, my Birthday on the 17th, and then Memorial Day. All of those celebrations keep us pretty busy, but this year was particularly bad because I got sick the day before our anniversary, then it spread to the Prince, and then to Captain F. Luckily the baby didn't get it. It was a nasty cold that was very difficult to shake. We all felt horrible.

We did manage to have some fun in May. We went to Lagoon a couple of times. The Prince loved it. He likes to ride on the rides with his daddy. I think the cars are his favorite. It was so fun to take him there. We love having a season pass because then we can go for a couple of hours and leave without feeling guilty. As you can see, Lagoon wears the Prince out.




















Captain F took me to a great restaurant for our Anniversary called Log Haven in Milcreek canyon. I am sure most of you know about it. I had never been there before. It was much more gourmet than I was expecting. We had a great time even though it was a rainy day.

I got to go shopping with my mom and sister in Park City. I haven't done that in years. We brought the kids and really they were pretty good. I would've liked going to more stores, but I found some super cute things for the house and for me to wear. It was great. Which reminds me, I have lost 15 pounds so far on Weight Watchers. The Prince loves my diet blueberry banana shakes.