Well, talk about starting off on a tangent. Let's just go through the big events that occurred during the last month or so of our lives. Given that I've spent more time at work than at home during this period I may or may not be lying about what actually occured.
Ben's Birthday:
Ben's Birthday was awesome dispite the fact that his FAVORITE birthday tradition EVER got passed over this time. Over time we got into the habbit of hanging donuts from our dining room chandelier as a birthday tradition. The rule is that you can only use your mouth to get the donut you want down (it's kind of like bobbing for apples). This is actually a form of russian roulette since our chandelier isn't anchored into the ceiling joist like it should be. It just suspends from a 2x4 that sits loose on top of the sheetrock above, but that is a much longer story for another day.
Anyway, we bought the donuts the day before so we'd be all ready for the next morning when Grandpa called up and took Ben out for a surprise birthday breakfast before school. Ben's birthday continued on through the weekend with a celebration that night, Chuck E Cheese with friends the next day, and a family celebration at Grandma and Grandpa's the day after that but 3 days and two stale boxes of donuts later we still hadn't done donuts. It was crazy whirlwind of illness, chores, and errands that always delayed it, but despite loving his birthday I'm not sure Ben has forgiven us for not having really done donuts this year.
Thanksgiving:
We drove down to California for Thanksgiving again this year. The best part: I got my wish of driving at night which means we made it down there in 8 hours flat and back in 7 hours and 45 minutes. We tried to knock out Bebe on our first day down there and he got the hint and took off two days of work to spend with us which was awesome.
The highlight of the trip (besides Thanksgiving itself) was going to the La Brea tarpits with BeBe. The density of geologic history contained per unit volume in the ground there is simply amazing. Of course, Katie cried because the fake mammoth family was standing helpless on the banks of the tar lake while the fake mammoth mommy gets sucked into the tar. This is not a story line that was suggested by anything found there by the way. Another fun thing at the tar pits is the atrium in the center of the museum that has fake animals placed throughout it with signs saying "Please don't feed the animals" (no kidding). The kids favorite attraction was the penny funnel at the end of the museum. Andrew thought he had it figured out when he realized he could just throw the penny through the hole in the middle instead of letting it roll, and roll, and roll. Anyways, we had a total head count at the end to make sure we hadn't added to the fossil record during our stay.
Thanksgiving was the wonderful experience we've come to expect at Ahma's with the jumping castle, great turkey, and amazing pie all included.
Christmas with Nini and Bebe:
As per holiday tradition we did Christmas with Nini and Bebe while we were in California for Thanksgiving. While Nini always does a masterful job orchestrating an incredible Christmas experience for the kids, this year left us completely speechless. Oh yes, we are still in awe.
Remember the costume contest I mentioned in my last post that actually shows up two posts back? Well the prize was a two night stay in West Wendover with tickets to see Joe Nichols. Katie and I didn't know anything about Wendover, but we did know we were excited to get a little trip with some time for each other without kids. So right after Thanksgiving dinner we hit Nini's house one last time for Christmas and to say goodbye to everybody. Then we drove through the night, dropped the kids off at with Grandma and Grandpa, and headed out to Wendover.
We almost missed it.
West Wendover spend LOTS of advertising dollars in Utah, and they absolutely had us fooled into thinking it must be something 2 or 3 times the size of Mesquite possibly. Let's just say, if you've seen the tv commercial for Wendover you've have seen ALL of Wendover including what must be the only indoor pool (commercial or residential). It's quite safe to say we're going to have to win another costume contest in order to get us back to West Wendover.
Highlights of the trip: The city landscapes in astroturf, Smiths, McDonalds. Yep, that's it. On one of our many trips to Smiths in 2 days I talked to one of the locals. It went like this:
Me: "So, are you from Wendover?"
Him: "Yep, can I help you with something?"
Me: "Is this it?"
Him: "Um, what are you looking for?"
Me: "I just thought there would be a couple of restaurants, maybe some stores, you know..."
Him: "Oh, well there's lots of places to eat. You know there's a chinese place in the strip mall, McDonalds,..."
Me: "There's a strip mall?!"
Him: "Yeah, right in back here by the titty bar."
Me: "That's a strip mall?"
Him: "Yeah, but don't park by Mike's garage. He doesn't like that."
Me: " Hmmmm"
I'm pretty sure that the so called "strip mall" was really just another name for his "titty bar". Anyway, we had an awesome time with each other, BYU won the Holy War while we were there, and the Joe Nichols concert was awesome despite the fact that I'm not much of a country music fan.
And that concludes November.
1 comment:
now that is a good time on the trip! we definately couldn't match that;) Do miss Sunny CA though!
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