A Message for Granny Sal

On the Way Home from Church

Mary told the children that they were going to play miniature golf tomorrow.

Caleb said, "I can't play, I don't have any clubs."

Mary said, "Don't worry, we can rent some there."

Grace said, "Are we going to ride in a golf cart?"

Mary said, "We need to move from this town."

Of Pandas and Polar Bears

Joshua loves pandas. I am not sure why he choose pandas, but he loves them. From the time he was about 6 months old, if he played with our Fisher Price Little People, he would end up with the pandas and the polar bear. We have even taken them to church because he enjoys playing with them so much.

This past week Hayden visited us. The children had a great time with their old friend. Mary sent the boys to the basement to play one morning while Grace was at soccer camp. Hayden and Caleb decided to play with the box of animals downstairs. There are more of these animals than there are in our Fisher Price set. They are also smaller.

After the boys had been playing for a while, Joshua came upstairs to see what Mary was doing in the kitchen. Joshua was carrying two animals from the basement set: a panda and a polar bear.

He know which animals he likes!

Stuff

It is a good thing that Grace was not born to a long line of feminists. She has lately taken to singing the classic Disney song "Femininity."

Let's just say that won't be a feminist anthem anytime soon.

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Have you seen the Half Blood Prince trailer? I think you should watch it. It is amazing.

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Caleb woke up this morning and got dressed before 6:30 am. We went downstairs and he read two books to me. I don't think I did mornings like he does mornings.

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Joshua is learning how to pray. We tell him to fold his arms and he bows his head. Usually he bows it so far that he touches something with his head. If we are by a bed, his head touches the bed. If we are at dinner, his head touches the tray of his high chair. I should not laugh, but it is funny in a cute way.

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Weird song that I was listening to while posting.

Caleb's Tower of Toilet Paper

If you need to build, you use whatever materials you can find.

Conversation in the Ocean

While we were at the beach, I carried Joshua out into the ocean. He had sand and suntan lotion all over his back. I needed to rinse it off. (Kind of cruel since the water was about 62 degrees.)

As I was out there, a man came up to me and said, "Your son looks exactly like you."

I replied, "Yeah, poor kid."

Without missing a beat he says, "Yeah, he doesn't know how bad he has it, does he?"

Joshua and His Hair

I love Joshua's hair. It is so great right now. It is red, curly, and sticks up all over the place. It grows the most in the middle and just a little bit on the side. I think it is adorable. The other day Mary took a picture and Joshua got in the way. This is what the bottom part of the picture looked like: When I am around and Joshua needs something, this is what I see: I love that silly, little boy.

Camping Trip

This weekend we went camping with Ken, Camille, Summer, William, and Sam. We had a great time with them. Here is a picture of all but Ken, William, and me. Our tent is in the background. It looks pretty good considering that we left the stakes at home. (I thought we had brought them with and spent an hour looking for them while Mary wondered what was wrong with me and why couldn't I set up the tent faster.) We borrowed some stakes and made due. It was fine except for the fact that it rained on the first night. Stakes really help a tent when there is rain. Oh well.

The big activity was to go to the beach. This is Joshua posing on the way to the beach. (He put his hat on that way.) And this is why we call her "Grace with a hole in her face." Here are two pictures of Mary and Grace body boarding together. Saturday happened to be our anniversary. It may be Mary's dream to spend our anniversary on the beach. I guess we can cross that off the list. Next time we just need to go further south for warmer water, decrease the number of kids with us, and upgrade the sleeping accommodations from a tent to a hotel room and the rest of the dream will be realized.

That evening we took the older children fishing. We did not catch anything but we fed the fish a couple of worms and grubs that they managed to get off the hook. Grace came the closest to catching something since there seemed to be something that got off her line right as she was about to pull it to the dock. Here is Caleb trying his hand at fishing. I took this picture of the two of us. The little fishing dock was really nice, as was the pond. The pond had a bunch of turtles and you could really hear the frogs.

After we came back from fishing we put the children to bed and the adults hung out by the campfire. Ken is a physician in training, so they had funny medical stories to tell us. As they were regaling us with their stories of emergency room visits, we told them that we really did not have any stories about going to the ER. We had taken Grace for an ear infection once or twice, but that was the extent of it. We came home on Sunday. Joshua fell asleep on the way home and got a great nap in since it continued when we came home. Caleb went to get him out of his crib, fell over (Joshua was fine), and hit his head on the side of Grace's bed. We went to the ER to get staples for Caleb's head. Officially, I am blaming Ken and Camille. (Hey, it was their stories that instigated our comment.)

Beans and Bug

We Went on a Vacation - Part 3

We stayed with Oliver and Kristin for a couple of days. The first day we went to the zoo and met up with our dear Cambridge friends, Annette, Allison, Sariah, and Kaylee. We had an amazing time at the zoo. We got to see so many of the animals and then Sean met us for dinner. We had a wonderful dinner and great conversation. What pictures do we have of seeing our old friends? I am glad you asked. We don't have any photos with our friends, but we got a great shot of a panda eating. (Pandas are Joshua's favorite animals. He calls them "nandas" and did not want to leave that part of the zoo.) The next day at Oliver and Kristin's was our last full day of vacation. We went to a water park. This was the draw: We had a great time. The kids ran around, hit the slides, and we just spent the whole day relaxing in the pool. Oliver and Joshua bonded after swimming. Joshua and Caleb relaxing on the lounge chairs: Here is Grace after a day full of swimming:

We Went on a Vacation - Part 2

We went out to dinner with Grandpa Jerry on our way to Oliver and Kristin's. We had a wonderful chat over dinner and the kids loved seeing Grandpa. Unfortunately, we did not take any pictures.

I sense a theme here.

We Went on a Vacation - Part 1

We went on a vacation about a month ago. I am finally posting the pictures. The stories will have to wait for another post, but we can put up some pictures. I have a disclaimer. We are good at taking our camera with us when we go on trips. We are good at finding fun activities to do. We are bad at bringing our camera to those activities.

We visited Dan and Rebecca first. We saw amazing gardens, went to a minor league baseball game, the kids played non-stop, and the adults sat in the kitchen talking, laughing and cooking together. How many pictures did we take outside of Rebecca's gorgeous shots? Two. Before we rolled out of town, we gathered by their doorstep. Here are all the pictures from this leg of the trip.

Take 1: Take 2: We may not have a lot of photographic proof from our trip, but trust me we had a great time. Thanks Dan and Rebecca! It is always great to spend time with you.

Church with Joshua

Joshua never wore shoes or sandals at church this week. He did not wear them on the way there. He did not wear them on the way home. He cannot talk but I know he is very happy about this accomplishment. Joshua hates shoes. The first thing he does when you put anything on his feet is pull them off.

Joshua is starting to be more apprehensive. He used to go anywhere with no fear. Now he recognizes whom he should be with and who he is around. I told him to go find Mom at the end of church this week. Normally he goes upstairs and finds Mom. He knows where the Primary meets and knows that is where he will find her. But not this week. He would not go without me.

These are things that all kids learn.

Family Night

Last night we were doing an activity from The Friend about numbers in the gospel. Among other topics, we talked about Jesus' betrayal by Judas. The children know the story but had forgotten some of the details. Mary told them that Judas received 30 pieces of silver for betraying Jesus.

A couple of minutes later Grace asked, "Judas betraded Jesus for how many pieces of silver?"

Wall-E Review

We saw the 2:50 showing of Wall-E on Friday. It was a great time to see the movie. The theater was not too crowded which helped with our crowd. Joshua could wander up and down our row without disturbing too many people. We had great seats in the middle of the theater. Also, Grace and Caleb got free Wall-E watches because we were there opening weekend. Gotta love a perk!

There were tons of previews and not a single one stood out. (That is not a good sign if you are in the movie business.) Then the short started. It was wonderful. The premise was crazy and the animation beautiful. The laughs were straight out of a Saturday morning cartoon from my youth. You have to love when they pull you in with the subconscious connections.

The first 30 minutes of Wall-E are incredible. There is little to no dialogue, but I did not hear a complaint from our children. The pictures and movement was so memorable that the kids were transfixed. I thought they would want us to leave, but they loved the growth of the relationship between Wall-E and EVE. When they leave Earth, the pace of the movie really increases. The difficulty of watching a show like this is you know that Pixar has packed in the details. I know I missed these details while trying to get a drink for Joshua or popcorn to the kids. I think this is a movie that you see more with each subsequent viewing.

After the Earth segment, the pace picks up and there is no slowing down until the end. I won't spoil the movie, but I do want to say something about the tone. I have read that what Dr. Seuss' The Lorax is to children's books, Pixar's Wall-E is to children's movies. The environmental message is not as strong, though it is a component of the movie.

So to recap, you might like this movie if you like movies:

• About post-apocalyptic life
• With incredible visuals
• Preaching a save the earth theme
• Depicting robot love stories
• Jabbing us for the over commercialization of America
• Showing kids playing in space
• That mock the movie-going public (and our infantilization and greed), or
• Of a love story between a janitor and a sexy, geeky gal.

I liked it a lot and loved the different messages and themes. But, in fairness, Mary enjoyed it but did not love. I think you should go and see it because it is a Pixar movie. And you have to support great entertainment.

Short Post

We had a great vacation. (I will try to post details.)
We had a great photo session with Rebecca. (Here is a sneak peek.)
We went and saw Wall-e yesterday. You should see it. (The short is unbelievably good.)

I will try to post more information about all of these events, but if I don't at least you know something.

Road Trippin'

We left on Thursday and are enjoying some southern hospitality in North Carolina with Dan and Rebecca. We left at 7:40 pm and made it to Delaware by 1:00 am on Friday morning. Now that is cruising. We did not hit any traffic anywhere up to that point. Here are some thoughts from the road:

• The most expensive state in terms of tolls is Delaware. It costs $7.00 to go about 20 miles. Not cool. We went 20 miles in New York and did not have to pay anything on the way down.
• Mary thinks I might be crazy for driving so late into the night. Obviously, she did not grow up with the Dale and Sally "Haul Rear Across America" program. (Ask Honor about the name. I am sure that my mother will disassociate herself with this particular program. She will say it was Dad. And she just might be right!)
• I saw a weird license plate on the way down. It was from Georgia and it was completely red. I don't think I have ever seen an all red license plate before.
• Grace and Caleb both slept well on this trip. Joshua did not sleep as well. Usually Caleb and Joshua are the better car sleepers.
• Grace slept so well in the car, she even took a nap on Friday afternoon. Grace NEVER naps in the car. Usually she and I are the only ones awake. But she took a nap this trip.

We have really enjoyed hanging out with Dan, Rebecca, and the monkeys. We went to the Duke University gardens and cathedral this afternoon. The gardens were amazing and the cathedral looks stunning. Certainly it is not your garden variety church. Tonight we went to a Durham Bulls game. Minor league baseball is a fun, family-friendly event. The kids really enjoyed themselves, though the later the game went the more difficult it was for them.

Conversation at the Table

Caleb asked me if I knew something over dinner tonight. (I don't remember what we were talking about.) I answered his question and Caleb asked, "How did you know that, Dad?"

I said, "'Cause I'm wicked smaht."

Without missing a beat, Caleb says, "No, you're wicked lahge."

That's my Caleb.

Disorganized Thoughts

I just finished reading this book. Robert Reich is a staunch Democrat. If you don't agree with the Democratic view of government programs, he still has interesting things about the intersection of capitalism and politics. Here is one quote that caught my attention:

The problem is that the choices we make in the market don't fully reflect our values as citizens. We might make different choices if we understood and faced the social consequences of our purchases or investments and if we knew all other consumer and investors would join us in forbearing from certain great deals whose social consequences were abhorrent to us. But we are unlikely to make the sacrifice if we think we'll be the only consumer or investor who refrains. Lonely forbearance can be the last refuge of a virtuous fool.

Interesting ideas in this book.

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I was in Philadelphia last week. My rental car was a Volkswagon Jetta. It was fun to drive. I was surprised. When I was driving to the airport, I passed an old van. It was a conversion van from the 80s. Three guys were pushing it down the highway. That must cannot be fun.

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I was riding a bus home a couple of weeks ago. I was next to three kids in the late teens or early 20s. Two girls were sharing iPod headphones. They were singing Spanish pop hits at the top of their lungs. The next day, the bus ran into a telephone pole with its mirror. It was an odd commuting week.

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I attended a conference in Boston a couple of weeks ago. I was walking through Harvard Square and saw a line of chairs in front of shops. The line went down the block and around the corner. I saw at least 200 people waiting in line. They were sitting in chairs and some had tents. What were they waiting for? They were in front of a shoe store. I think a limited edition of set of shoes were being sold. I can't believe people wait in line like that for shoes.

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Since I was in Boston, it was always fun to see the old sights from when we were in school. I love to watch the stereoscopic advertisements on the T.

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I am digging a new song. It is called "Handlebars" by Flobots. The video is fascinating. (It is on YouTube. It does have some cartoon violence in it.) I have to admit that I am a sucker for songs with compelling ideas. I don't even need to agree with the idea.

Conversations and Happenings

I was ironing a shirt this morning. That is an extremely rare occurrence. The shirt had sat in the dryer for most of the week. I was talking to Grace and asked her if Mom ironed when she was not sewing quilts.

Grace thought for a second and said, "No, not extensively."

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Caleb likes Planet Heroes. Lately we have been coloring pictures from the website. We sat down to color "Earth Ace" and Caleb said, "Dad you can color a pattern or asymigration."

"Asymigration?" I replied.

He thought for a moment and said, "I mean symmetry."

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Joshua loves to empty the dishwasher. He will climb right up there and hand you all the dishes. You have to grab the knifes out first.

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Joshua also loves animals. His favorite animal is a panda. He calls any animal a "nanda." Well, except for a dog. To "say" dog, he pants.