::baby::

Meet my new 3 month old niece Ann.


I'm so glad I got to meet her before she got any bigger. She's adorable, isn't she?

::more visits::

My brother Cammon is visiting us this weekend with his wife Lorri and cute little 2 yr old boy and 3 month old girl. We're having lots of fun mostly just hanging out. Kris did a quick dental exam on the little guy yesterday when we gave them a tour of the office. He did awesome--Max got to do the exam first and was a good example thank goodness.
They've been playing together really well, Max and Scooter. Lots of sharing and messing around. And lots of piano playing.
We're lucky to be so close to family finally. How nice that family can come see us, we love it!!

(yes they're wearing matching shirts--thanks Gram)

::phoenix::

Just a quick rundown of Phoenix activities.
Kris did lots of learning all day and Max and I got to play.
We swam and swam. In fact I was too busy swimming to get any good swimming pictures. When it's 110 outside, you've got to stay cool somehow, and swimming worked out well for us. In fact Max made huge strides in his swimming while we were there. The pool didn't have much shallow end, so I was keeping a tight eye on him. He was following Kris around the pool on a floaty. Then Kris took off fast across the deep end and Max, wearing his mask and snorkel, took off after him. He was completely without any flotation! I was stressed out but he swam perfectly and made it to the edge without even realizing he was really swimming on his own. After that it was like something clicked and he was all over the pool. By the time we were done he was swimming so confidently. It was amazing.
So that was the swimming.

In the afternoon Max and I went to a huge outlet mall in Tempe. Phoenix basically has anyplace you could ever dream of shopping--that's a chain.
Of course Max had to ride the carousel immediately.

He got the weird cool mer-horse. He's also wearing the sunglasses they gave out at the hotel pool. He wore them everywhere that day and felt very awesome.
We went to the Disney Store for some PJs and a cool shirt or two. (We don't have a Disney Store in Santa Fe!)

We went to the Carters Outlet and Max very cutely helped me pick out a bunch of baby clothes. We tried to go neutral, but I have to say we did pick out a couple of things that weren't neutral at all. We'll have to just see what needs to be taken back! (We don't have any Carters in NM at all. Boo Hoo.)
We went to Gap and got Kris work shirts.
Then we were tired tired. Max spied the Rainforest Cafe, and since I knew he would love it we stopped in for some (yucky tasting)ice water and to share a dessert. Who knew that the dessert would be bigger than Max. We barely made it halfway through.

It didn't really matter about the food though, because we were enjoying the animatronics and the fake thunder storms too much.

We had In-N-Out Burger for lunch both days, mmmmmmm.
We had a big Rainforest Cafe dinner on saturday night, to please the Max. Max and I went to a movie.
We went to sacrament meeting in Gilbert in our friends' humongous ward. We had dinner with the same friends that night. So fun!

I'm going to leave out the part about how I scratched somebody's car in the parking lot. I'm also not going to post pictures of my feet swollen up to the size of Montana. I'm not posting about the air conditioner in the hotel that barely worked, even though I had the thermostat put down to 50 degrees.
But really those were the only bummers.
We had lots of fun otherwise, besides the CRAZY HEAT!
At least we got to get away from the responsibilities and just hang out.
There you go, there's the report. Good thing I had my phone along to take photos since I didn't break out the big camera once!

(oh, and these are our new monkeys for the office. They scream when you squeeze their bellies. Yes they're very cute, and yes the kids love them. Including Max!)

::holbrook az::

This last weekend we took a drive to Phoenix. Kris had an orthodontics course to attend, and Max and I had some swimming, shopping and resting to do.

I don't really have many photos from Phoenix, it was TOO HOT for me to even think, but we had lots of fun. I'll have to post about it later.

But on the way to Phoenix we drove through the coolest little town on Route 66.
Holbrook AZ. I think it's the town Lightening McQueen's Radiator Springs was based on!
Check out the wigwam hotel:

Have you stayed in a wigwam lately?

Does it remind you a bit of the Kozy Kone motel?
And to make it even better, there was an awesome old car parked outside of every wigwam. Including a very authentic Mater which Kris drove by too fast for me to get a picture of.



And this muffler shop fit right in as far as I'm concerned. It's just so cool and vintage looking, don't you think?

And Ramone was there too, complete with his awesome paint job.

But I'm not sure who took off with his wheels.

I have no idea where the dinosaurs fit in all this, but they were there too, and they were awesome.


This is all we saw driving through the town quickly--bad pictures, bad lighting and all. I'm guessing there are probably more hidden gems in this little town. We'll probably have the opportunity to check them out at some point. I'll keep you posted.
Oh, and we stopped for lunch at DQ on the way home in Holbrook. Go there if you want a little vintage atmosphere, but not if you're in a hurry. It was still delicious though.

::suggestions::

Here are a few of Max's baby name suggestions. (Besides Sam & Sammy--his favorite so far.)

Eris--you know, like the dwarf planet.
Rico--just an awesome name he came up with (I'm sure not inspired at all by uncle Rico I'm sure. "My friends and clients call me UNCLE Rico.")
Max 2--that' pretty self explanatory, right? This is really one of his original and most persistent sugguestions. Two Maxes. Call me crazy, but I think yelling at one Max at a time is enough.

We'll see what else he comes up with.

::dog in abstract::

::feets rest::

We found a new guitar teacher out here for Max. He seems awesome. He's a classical guitarist and has taught lots of kids. He also has three big hairy malamutish dogs, dresses just like my dad and lives 5 minutes away. (YAY! I do enough driving right now.)
Max had his first lesson last week, and the teacher requested that Kris and Max construct a footrest/boost for Max to use while playing. So this weekend they headed out to the hardware store, bought a 2x4 and went for it.
I guess Kris let Max do it all--basically anyway. He was way excited.

It's always a good thing for dads and sons to have projects together.

And it was nice because I got to relax and rest while they were doing it--though I have to admit the power saw sounds from the garage did make me a little tense.

But everybody survived.
Now the trick is just getting Max to actually keep his feet ON the footrest.


He'll get the hang of it.

I expect him to be playing Stairway to Heaven for me anytime now. For now I'm enjoying Buffalo Gals and He's Got the Whole World in His Hands. Good stuff.

::more nature max::

Do you remember the Nature Max movie we made last fall?
Well, Max and I just finished up a new one, and he's really excited about it.
It's my first iphone video, and I think it looks pretty darn good. The only problem I have with it is the audio--the phone doesn't pick up audio as well as our little video camera, although the video is like a million times nicer. Can't have it all I guess.

Enjoy Nature Max--Taos edition. And you know you can change the video quality of what you're watching down in the lower right hand corner. Hopefully your internet is faster than ours and can show you the video at all!

(and if you have watched the original Nature Max lately you might catch a few allusions Max makes to himself--he thinks he's pretty funny.)

::goofy, goofier, goofiest::

But which is which?
Not even Boston is sure.

(these pictures are from about a month ago when Kelly & Lechelle & B were here to visit and we went up to Taos Ski Valley. I have more pictures that are fun and eventually they might actually get posted!!)

::two months to go::

(taking pictures of oneself can be complicated)
As of today there are two months until the official due date. Now, we all know better than to go by official due dates, but what else is there to do at this point?
Things have really been going great. At one point the dr's office in RI thought I had a fibroid, but the new OBGYN's office here in NM couldn't find it when they went looking. I'd rather have it that way, naturally.
I'm doing well, just really tired and busy. Some days everything hurts and some days I feel great.
Last night I did wake up in the middle of the night because (1)my back hurt (2)I had to go to the bathroom (3)my ear was ringing because I'm congested and can't take any decongestants (4)horrible heartburn. I was really annoyed. Then I laughed and thought--boy, does this sound like the third trimester or what?

So much has happened in the last few months, it's crazy to think we just have a couple of months to go, but also crazy that there are still a whole couple of months!
We'll make it. We're all excited. Max is very excited and enjoys feeling the baby kick whenever he gets the opportunity. I think he'll be a good and helpful big brother (generally speaking.)

(this is kind of like my view of myself. Mostly middle, no feet anymore)
Thinking of names is taking lots more time and energy this time than with Max--at least it seems that way. Maybe it's because we have to come up with a good option of each gender? Maybe it's because (as the trendy baby name books say) we need to coordinate sibling names? (hah). Anyway, we're working on it, and hopefully in a couple of months we'll have some good stuff figured out.

Can't wait to meet this little one.

::switcharoo::

My sweet little Max had to go through a little bit of a school ordeal this week.
Evidently there were some problems with class sizes, and the 1st grade classes had to be slightly reorganized. (I've heard from other moms this happens often in this school--something having to do with enrollment numbers and etc.)
I was hoping that we would be safe, since there are so many 1st graders, and the likelihood of Max being chosen out of the mob seemed low. But of course, he got picked to move into a different class. Bummer. Extra bummer since the principal called and left me a message telling me about it at 7PM on friday night before labor day. So I had to go through the whole weekend mad, and couldn't get ahold of anybody to complain and explain that my poor little son has been moved around already more than any guy needs to be, and how I just wanted him to be able to stay in the same dang class where he was actually starting to make friends!

So I didn't talk to him about it over the weekend, really hoping I was going to be able to talk the school out of it and that he'd just be able to go to his normal class. But after a billion calls to the school and emails to the principal the only way to reach her was to attack her at her office as she arrived 10 minutes before school started.

There was nothing I could do--you know--there comes a point where unless you're going to be a super duper jerk you just have to deal with what comes.

So I had to go out in the parking lot and tell my little boy he was switching classes RIGHT THEN. I felt awful.
Luckily his new teacher is super nice, and after listening to my concerns she was very sympathetic. She came out to the parking lot with me and took him back to the classroom to show him around. He was pretty sad and bummed at first, but warmed up to her pretty quickly.
He seemed to do ok, but me? I didn't do so hot that day until I picked him up and saw he was ok.
He had a good day, and he's had a good week in the new class, though he definitely misses his old one.
I'm just proud of him--he's strong and resilient and fun and smart. He's a great kid and I'm so glad he's ours!!

::new toy::

Max was so sad when we moved from RI because we had to give our trampoline away.
It was old and kind of gross and we had to hold the safety net on with wire ties. We weren't going to pay to move that dang thing across the country.
Besides the yards out here aren't exactly made for playground equipment.

And that's the problem. The yards are just different than what we're used to. Before we moved, Max spent hours out in the yard, swinging in the hammock and playing on the deck. Out here it's more complex. Our yard is less contained and the in the afternoons the little garden area gets HOT. There's also not a lot of room for chairs or hammocks or anything. Our hammock is out there, but it's on the part of the patio that's not contained by walls, so I'm not thrilled about him being out there all alone.
So there's not a ton of motivation to play outside, which I don't like.

So I thought maybe we could get a tramp again. A smaller one. One that would fit right in our useless gravel patch.
And I found it.
The other day when we got home from work/school/whatever, there was a big package waiting for us by the door. Max was psyched to see that the box said TRAMPOLINE on it!
Kris said he'd set it up right away.
When we started working on it the sun was up and the evening breezes were starting to blow. It was really nice outside.


(see the flower petals on Sultan's back? I love it when he goes out and rubs around the bushes. He comes in looking like he's been at a wedding or something, all covered with purple petals.)

For some strange reason Max had already gotten dressed in his PJs. This is honestly so weird and never ever happens without us bugging him a bunch. But that day, somehow he was on top of things.

He was just SO excited about the trampoline!!

And we worked on it and worked on it. Max played around and Sultan ate apples.


Isn't it tiny? It's probably half the size and half the height of our old one. It kind of looks like an overgrown exercise trampoline. I think it's cute.
Setting it up took way longer than it seemed like it should. And the sun was going down.


The sunset over the mountains never fails to disappoint.
And Kris finally finished up the last bit of the safety net set up in the dark.

And the little guy finally got to jump. He waited so long and so semi-patiently! We let him jump for about 5 minutes and then shuttled him off to bed.


It was a nice night. And Max was way excited to get up and jump on his trampoline the next morning. I'm hoping it'll inspire a lot more outside time this fall!
Thanks for spending the evening with us.