Ward Party Crashers

We've showed up on your doorstep unannounced, stayed late at your birthday party until all the cake is gone, camped out on your lawn just because the grass was so nice, and now we will also crash your ward party if we get the chance. Saturday I was tackling the sprinkler system from hell when somebody started setting up a party in the church parking lot. It didn't take very many people to start enjoying themselves before my son became interested.

Ben LOVES a carnival. It doesn't matter what or where or even if there are fun things, I think he really just loves the atmosphere. So with a popcorn machine, cotton candy maker, snow cone stand, and dunk tank staring down his backyard it was really an act of valour and service for him to say, "I'm going to go check it out."

He returned a half an hour later dripping wet with a sno-cone in hand and cotton candy wisps billowing from his air and exclaimed, "it's all FREE!" It must have seemed like a magical portal had opened up in an answer to prayer. Right there at the child's own place of worship a miracle had occured that rivaled raising of the dead: a free carnival. His mother was an instant convert, "HONEY! It's a neighborhood party!"

I assured her that it was probably somebody else's ward party. There were in fact several clues leading to this rather dissapointing conclusion. The fact that only about 1/6 of the neighborhood was present, the fact that we did not recognize ANYBODY who was an immediate neighbor to us, the fact that we had not received an announcement or invite of anykind, and the fact that my son does not have enough faith yet to create a free carnival next door. Nonplussed she pointed to the fact that a sign said it was a neighborhood party. I looked up and sure enough it read "Southwest Grandview Neighborhood Party," which is not the quadrant of the neighborhood that we live in. Luckily, I'm a scientist so I possess absolutely no analytical skills that would allow me to correctly assess the situation and submit a viewpoint to my wife that she would take seriously.

She was excited though, so we went. Luckily we were slow enough to miss their ward picture which Katie was hurredly trying to gather our children for. But while the whole ward was off taking a picture we enjoyed popcorn, cotton candy, sno-cones, homemade rootbeer on tap, grilled corn on the cob from someone's garden, and homemade pies.

As people started wandering back after the picture a man came up to me and asked my name. "Are you new here?" he asked excitedly. "No," I said. "Are you a member of our ward?" he asked with a more confused look on his face. "No. We just live in that house over there. We can't stand to miss a good party." He didn't really know what to say, so I asked him what his name was and he graciously thanked me for squatting at his barbeque. People in Utah are funny like that.

Katie finally got the news broken to her while she was chatting it up with people waiting to get the kids on a pony ride. In the ten minutes I'd been away from her she'd turned bright red. I didn't know anyone could get a sunburn that fast. Anyways, it was a LOT of fun. The other wards sure throw great parties. I think we'll have to get on their email list from now on so we can plan on it.

Idaho

We drove up to Rexburg to see Mike and Brittany and the kids a couple of weekends ago and had a blast. Highlights of the trip included shooting, fishing, letting the kids play with the dead fish like they were fisher-price toys, and an AMAZING pork sirloin roasted in red wine that the kids kept eating as long as we all called it "chicken". Things that weren't such a big hit were mostly food I made using the recipe as a "guideline". No really, if you don't have sugar you can mix equal parts coriander and celery salt for a substitute, I swear. In other news we learned that Ben loves to catch the fish and keep the fish but draws the line at ingesting the fish. Here are the pictures in absolutely no chronological or particular order:

The .22 rifle was a little big and heavy for Ben but he had a blast anyways (pun intended). I posted this picture because Katie's already not speaking to me.

I'm not sure if the subject of this picture is our family, a dock, or a bridge, but since I'm bad at interpreting art, it's probably the white SUV.

Hunter didn't know that the fish wasn't a toy.

And we didn't tell Ella either.

Kallie will model anything to build a portfolio though.

Even Japanese crap.

Ben pulled in his first fish ever thanks to Uncle Mike.Uncle Mike's secret fishing hole was a long walk from Rexburg.

Worms turned out to be the bait of choice for fish in Idaho. I thought it would've been potatoes.

I thought this picture was gorgeous.

Us Lately...

Kal's been working on her hula-hoop toss...

I think she has the form down!

Ben's been collecting wonderful prizes...

Kal's been fishing around for some too...

Chris and Andrew (and Ben) all got matching buzz cuts....(not my idea :))

Kal has taken makeup to a whole new level

Andrew shows his true side...

You may now call her "Princess Kallie"

Andrew doesn't want to be left out

Holding perfectly still

The gang and the loot

Andrew is my new fashion hero....please take note of

1. the fisherman hat he never takes off

2. the princess bandaid

3. the jammie shirt..but oddly no jammie pants

4. the tag still on his army boots

5. how incrediably happy he is with this outfit he put together

"Mom, you know my left side is my 'good' side!"

Say cheese!

K's mini me

For school Kallie was asked to make a doll that looked like her. So of course we had to do a dress, with sparkle shoes, and a sparkle bracelet and belt. You can't tell from the picture but she also has sparkles in her hair and sparkle earrings. Kal had so much fun making this doll! She is going to wear a dress that matches her doll, and of course her hair in braids! FYI - Kall picked out everything for this doll from fabric to buttons. What a little fashion designer we have!

Cabin

For Labor Day weekend we went and played at the cabin! We love going there and just relaxing. It is great to only pack clothes to lay around in, no makeup, no curling iron, no bows...just go up and leave the world away. I guess I was too relaxed because I was HORRIBLE at taking pictures! I didn't even get ONE of Amy's cute little baby! I did get a few cute ones on the rare (ok, the ONE time I took my camera out of its case). So here they are!
"Ava, say Cheese!" and you get this picture...

"Caden, say Cheese!" and you get this picture....

"Andrew, say Cheese"...and you get this (him running down the hallway)....
The BOYS did a lot of the cooking this weekend...see the cabin is a magical place!

Such a cute kid!

Andrew and Hailey jumping on the love sac.

This post did not do justice to what an amazing time we had at the cabin this weekend! We love going up there with family and letting the cousins play and the adults catch up. The only hard thing about going to the cabin is coming back home and facing life again :)

Take me out to the ball game!

I know the BURNING question in all of your minds is "what did Kallie wear to school on her second day?" Kallie, being a wonderfully thoughtful girl, had me take a picture of her on your second day of school so I could post it on the blog for all her fans :) A Kallie disclaimer...she would have worn something different today, but today they were learning about red...so she just HAD to wear red for her teacher!

And yes, the backpack is still the same one...just in case any of you were not completely sure :) (See, told you she was thoughtful!)

Also, I'm pretty sure I haven't blogged about it yet, but Ben is in SOCCER! He LOVES it and is constantly asking me why I didn't sign him up sooner. I have no idea what I was thinking! Hopefully, I will remember to take my camera next game day and get some action shots!

And here is Andrew being Andrew. He is such a cute little monkey!

Alright, now on to the baseball game! I will now turn the computer over to Chris for the funny stories that were so abundant!

Wow, the funny thing is I'm not usually very funny when I TRY to be or when I'm under pressure to be funny. But for all anybody knows there is really just one author to this post pretending (for whatever reason) to be two authors. You'll never know, but my friends at school tomorrow are going to be so impressed that I pulled off posting as BOTH my parents online! I'm the coolest 1st grader ever!

So back to the story. There are two things that I (my dad that is) never thought would happen. One was attending an Orem Owlz (D league) baseball game. There other was owning a BYUSA shirt. Well, the universe will never cease to amaze me. I've now attended an Orem Owlz baseball game and ended up owning a BYUSA t-shirt all in the same night. I'm not exactly calling it a miracle, but it's certainly "miraculous" that it happened. From a statistics point of view the probability of those two things happening on the same night, if at all, was about as good as winning the lottery. Yeah, I'd rather have won the lottery, but still.

Papa and Hailey met us at the game and THE Orem Owl met us just inside the gate. My photo-op happy wife could not have been photo-op happier. Now, study the picture below EXTREMELY carefully. It may not seem like it, but it is in fact one of those "the moment before you realize the pain" type pictures.

Now you can't see her in the picture (I just made you study it for nothing), but there is a little girl lurking behind the owl who is poised for attack. The second the shutter clicked she literally jumped the owl from behind and entwined her body in a death lock on the owl's tail. This led to a scuffle that partially revealed the secret of the giant owl. "It's just a man in there!" cried my kindergartner. She is so smart! Let's hope no one scuffles with Santa Claus in front of the kids until they're a little older...

After we had settled down with our free 4" hot dogs and 24 oz. sodas with no lids or cardboard racks for carrying them we realized that nobody had thought to get napkins, but we had collectively managed to gather about 50 plastic straws between all of us. Katie went to make the switch and returned with an armful of BYUSA t-shirts. I'm not sure BYUSA meant for us to use their free t-shirts as napkins, but hey, whatever keeps the ketchup and mustard off the clothes we actually paid for.

Katie then decided that we should get at least 2 more free t-shirts to clean up any future soda spills we might have so I went off to the BYUSA table. The conversation was off to a bad start when I asked what BYUSA was doing at an Orem Owlz game and they insinuated that I was obviously too old to still be in college by asking if at one point in my history I had been a part of BYUSA. I remained the better man and held my tongue from retorting exactly what I thought of BYUSA and then I proceeded to dress them down by belittling their respective majors. Physicists can be such arrogant jerks sometimes. In the end, it was all for nothing since they were all out of shirts by the time I got there.

Also at the game: jolly fat people. Specifically jolly fat people who pose a smile in the background of your personal pictures. See if you can spot one (besides me of course) in the picture below.

In the end we got great seats. Front row right behind home plate. Notice how happy the kids look wearing their new napkins.

And, as at all events, we had to take our signature self portrait.

Notice how Katie picked the one where her wrinkles were minimized and mine were maximized.

Andrew was Papa's little buddy throughout the whole game.

Now again, the picture below is another one of these "the moment before the pain hits" type shots. See if you can spot it this time.

And again you would hate me because the picture itself gives no clue as to what is about to happen. Sitting right behind the home plate net can get a little exciting at times, and Papa was very diligent trying to keep the kids a safe distance away from the loose net in case a foul ball came flying at one of their little heads. Unfortunately, he was not so diligent with his soda. His hapless soda was sitting innocently on the wall behind the net when the batter clipped a fast one and sent it about eye level at the front row. The laws of physics took over and Papa's right foot got an iced soda bath. Katie could not stop laughing. This then served as an object lesson to the kids who, not wanting to have their brains under go the same fate as the soda, were very good about sitting in their seats for the rest of the game.

It turns out that the Orem Owlz are pretty good about spreading around free stuff in between all the innings and we ended up with free passes for everyone to Seven Peaks as well. This got Ben in the mood of trying to predict which section the Owl was going to be in during the next inning break to try and get more stuff. Needless to say it didn't really work out for him.

During the seventh inning stretch I asked myself a question I should have thought of long before. If you're playing a "sport" that takes so long to play and requires so little physical activity that you have to stop and strectch again before the game is over, is it really a sport? Not even golfers do that.