Families Are Forever

Mid-June was busy around here.  First, Doug took a spontaneous and quick weekend trip home to see  his Dad in the hospital.

His brother Dave was in town to see his Dad too.

While he was flying to Utah, his sister Beth, her best friend Steph, and Beth's two kids Spence and Anna were driving here for a visit.  Happily, Doug was back in plenty of time to party with all of us.

Terrible Pipes picture.  But delicious food.

Max and cousin Spencer

Thai Food with Beth and Steph

Though they stayed in a hotel this time, we had lots of fun meeting them at the Beach, swimming in our pool, and going out to eat.

These Are The Days!

Last night right before the boys' bedtime, my cousin Kim and her husband Cliff arrived for a visit from Utah.

The boys got to play with them for a few minutes and then had to go to bed. This morning I was changing Gabe's diaper when I heard Sam wake up. He left the bedroom and ran straight to the family room window. A second later I heard wailing and gnashing of teeth and went to see what was wrong.

Sam had left the window, prostrated himself on the couch and was fake-sobbing very dramatically.

Me: Sammy what's wrong?
Sam: *sobs*
Me: Are you sad that Max left?
Sam: *sobs* No!
Me: Are you sad that Daddy left?
Sam: No!
Me: Are you sad that Kim and Cliff left?
Sam: YES!!!
Me: Sammy, they're not gone. They're downstairs sleeping.
Sam: But I didn't see theo caw!!!
Me: They flew on the airplane and then I picked them up from the airport.
Sammy: OH!
He then ran off happily to play.

Obviously we're all very excited Kim and Cliff are here.

Now to reminisce for a minute:

Kim has been a profound influence on me throughout my life. She was the first one to introduce me to the joy of shoving Black Cat Firecrackers* in garden tomatoes and throwing them over the fence into the neighbors yard. (Sorry Mom. Sorry yippy-little-dog-next-door.)

Kim was also responsible for sneaking me out my bedroom window when I was 16. We'd drive to "The Border"**, drive to Wendy's, drive to "The Sev"*** and then usually drive home... 'cause we really didn't have anything else to do. (It occurs to me that my dad reads this blog. Can I still get grounded for this, because I'm starting to sweat a little!?)

I like to think I also had a profound impact on Kim. When we were Freshman in college and neighbors at "The Glenwood", I noticed--and commented--that her wardrobe was solely comprised of unisex White t-shirts. (Either from In 'n Out or a Country Music concert.) (Mine was full of men's polyester and black t-shirts...much better.) This rude awakening gradually led her to expand her clothing horizons into form-fitting shirts of other colors and is probably the reason she is happily married today!

Isn't it great how we help each other out through life? Yes, those were the days!!!

Well, I'd love to stay and reminisce, but I've gotta go. Kim and I are going to go blow stuff up.

Sorry in advance to all the neighborhood dogs!

*Dad, remember when you snooped through my room and found the shoebox full of illegal fireworks that I had rightfully stolen from Brandon? And then how you wrongfully confiscated them, taped-up the box and hid it in your closet? Well, one day in a fit of righteous indignation, I snooped through YOUR closet until I found the box and stole the contraband back. Then I filled the box with rocks and cellophane and taped it back up and put it back in your closet. Boy, it feels good to get that off my chest! (I'm only admitting this because I'm pretty sure there's a statue of limitations AND because I'm moving to Japan.)

**Taco Bell. The drive-thru was open 24 hours. It was totally the cool place to "cruise".

***7-11. I'd get the Hot Chocolate and add about 12 Chocolate-flavored creamers. Ummm...chocolate...!

Easter High's and Low's

High:
My sister Jenny (Jay, Jay-Bird, Jennerator) and her family came to stay with us for a long weekend. We were sooooo happy to see them and my boys loooooooved seeing their cousins, Aunt Jenny, and Uncle Stu!
Low:
They only got to stay for a few days so we didn't have enough time to see and do everything we wanted! High:
We ate lots of yummy food including; Lobster (and other varied Seafood), homemade Ciabatta Bread and BBQ Chicken Pizza, Chocolate Mousse Cake, Lion House German Chocolate Cake (thanks Stu) and Easter dinner (which included Ham, Scalloped Potatoes, and homemade rolls).
Low:
We never got a chance to eat the New England Creamery "Martha's Vineyard Black Raspberry" Ice Cream I bought for them, didn't have time to make Ebelskivers or Eggs Benedict, and now have no one to share the 12 pounds of left-over ham!
High:
Jay and family got to see where we live, hang out at our beach, and visit Boston for the day.
Low:
Jenny twisted her ankle while in Boston and it turns out it's fractured. She'll be in a walking cast for the next 8-12 weeks. Which also happens to be how long she has left of her pregnancy.
High:
It was a great visit and we loved seeing them again.
Low:
I'm really sad that they're gone!!! WE MISS YOU GUYS!!!



Luckily, I have a whole half-gallon of "Martha's Vineyard Black Raspberry" Ice Cream to console me.

Random Kindness

FIRST: I would just like to state that we had an extremely fun visit this last week and it's all thanks to blogs. Yes, that's right, BLOGS!

If it weren't for the fact that I'm a loyal reader of the "D" family blog, (and therefore in the know about practically everything happening in their lives,) I never would have invited them to come. BUT since I am a faithful reader, I had no problem asking Lindsay, whom I've previously only met two times, to drag her family from Utah to Rhode Island to help celebrate Doug's birthday. And I'm pretty sure, if it weren't for the fact that she reads my blog, she wouldn't have come.

So YAY for blogs and YAY for visitors!!! (So is that the way to spell "yay", because I used to spell it yeah, but in the Bible it's yea, so I'm just not sure...)

ANYWAY!!! Back to why I started this post. Driving to Boston with the D Family the other day, I remembered something that happened on my previous trip to Boston. And it made me want to write a post in honor of all the people in the world whom I don't actually know but who rock.

So here goes;

Two Boston trips ago, I went to pick-up my mom at the Logan airport. She was in town to meet Baby Gabe who was only a few weeks old. By the time I got to the airport, he had been screaming for about 10 minutes and was ready to eat. I made the first loop around the pick-up area, didn't see her, and kept driving because the traffic cop wasn't letting anyone stop. Second time around, I couldn't handle it any more. It was killing me to hear Gabe crying and the other two boys loudly telling him to stop wasn't helping. I pulled over, hopped out, and got Gabe quickly out of his car seat. I figured the cop would soon be over to get me to move but figured it was better than nothing.

I was right. He saw me pulled over, saw that no one was being picked up, and came right over. Then he saw how frantic Gabe was and how distraught I looked because he said, "I can't let you stop here because I just got rid of all those other people, but if you want to pull around again, you can park right over there in the taxi area and tend to your baby."

He was a big burly black cop but I so wanted to kiss him right then! I quickly strapped Gabers back in, drove the loop again, parked where he had shown me, and proceeded to nurse Gabe until Faezer came out 15 minutes later. (That's how long I would have been driving in circles with a screaming baby if it weren't for that wonderful, wonderful man.)
THANK YOU WONDERFULLY KIND AND BRILLIANT LOGAN AIRPORT TRAFFIC COP!!!

Next: More recently when we were on our trip to Maine we stopped at a beach in Acadia N.P. To access the beach you had to take a long, narrow wooden staircase down to the water. When we were leaving, I got a head start up the stairs with Max, and Gabe in the Baby Bjorn. Half way up, Max, who was (as usual) running, tripped and fell pretty hard on the stairs. Hearing him crying, a boy around the age of 10, stopped, turned around, saw me with a baby strapped to my chest, and walked back down to Max. He asked him a few times if he was okay, then waited to see if Max needed help getting up and watched him with concern until he did. None of the nearby adults bothered to help, including the boys mom who looked at him with confusion. He was obviously nervous and a little embarrassed, (he kept looking at me like I might shoo him away) but he stayed put right by Max until he was sure he was okay and could make it the rest of the way up the steep stairs. I was VERY impressed by him and thanked him profusely for trying to help my little Maxer. THANK YOU YOUNG BOY WHO GAVE ME HOPE FOR THE FUTURE OF MANKIND!!!

Last one: This one is a bit old, but we still praise the unknown name of this unknown lady. It was last summer. After dragging two kids around New York City all day on foot, we found ourselves at the Empire State Building. Since we'd been wanting to see it, and we were there, we bought tickets to go up to the top. Then we got in line. Turns out, you have to wait in line to take the elevator to the top and the line was about 2 hours long. We were despondent. We didn't know what to do. We had already purchased our tickets, but we also had two tired boys with us, and a long way to go to get back to our hotel. We were planning to give up and get out of line when Doug stopped an employee to ask her advice. He told her our boys were exhausted and asked if it was really going to take 2 hours? Should we wait? Could we come back and use our tickets later? She looked us over and said "Come with me." Confused, we got out of line and followed her through a back hallway that led...

...to the front of the line. She left us in front of some elevators and said "Wait here." and then left to get back to her job. It took us a minute to figure out that she had just placed us two hours ahead of where we had just been! Doug barely had time to rush back over to her and thank her before the elevator came and whisked us up a million stories. (Where my fear of heights was further cemented. But that's another story.) THANK YOU ESB EMPLOYEE WHO SAVED US FROM AN EVENING OF MISERY!!!

SO! to you three kind people, we send you positive psychic vibrations whenever we think of you. May you be eternally blessed with the closest parking spot to the mall entrance and freedom from indigestion for all of your days. Because YOU ROCK!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Douglas a.k.a. Sugar Lips/Honey Buns/Sweet Cheeks/Sugar Booger turned 30 yesterday! (October 2nd) For his birthday surprise, I invited an old friend of his to come visit. Actually, I invited the friends really cool wife and we conspired together to plan the visit. The surprise has been in the works since February and frankly, I'm astounded I kept it a secret that long.

Mike and Doug became friends when they lived in the same dorm their freshman year at BYU. They both served missions in Germany and stayed friends post mish. In fact, Mike went on our first date with us! (Accompanied by my roommate Anna.)

Mike, Lindsay, Auriana, and Andrew arrived Monday evening before Doug got home from work. When he walked in, all he could do was stare speechlessly at the visitors. It was freakin' awesome.

We've been partyin' it up ever since. Happy Birthday Love Nut!!!