::more st george pt 1::

Here's some more fun from our St George weekend.

First, a photo of Sandy on the way there. He's such a good sport. He and Max (and Sultan) all do a great job in the car. And poor Sandy has nothing to entertain him really, except the mirror and whatever toys I think to hand him. At least Max has movies and books and stuff.
Anyway, he's a great little guy.


One of the beloved things about staying in St. George is the pool. And the fact that it's usually warm enough for swimming to be tolerable. Sadly, the day we took Sandy to the pool it seemed way colder than usual, so he had to get into the hot tub, which was also cooler than usual. Still too hot for him to stay in for long. Too bad because he was having a blast.

He was splashing and giggling and getting very startled when he accidentally splashed himself right in the face.

He's not a serious as he looks.

But the bigger kids, of course, got to have the best time. They don't have to quit and go home for nap because the pool is too warm/cold. They play and play and play.
Here's Max and Parker comparing heights. We're not exactly sure how Max is suddenly a head taller.



These guys basically have WAY too much fun together.
And KC looks on, as usual. I'm sure he'll get over there and start pinching somebody at any minute.

And some launching:


What else are dads good for really?

In other news, we got to eat at In & Out Burger and Cafe Rio. We went to a movie with all six of the kids and survived. We put them all to bed every night and they stayed and there was actually some grownup time had. It was rather amazing--probably a blessing that we all needed!

More to follow--the drive home has some rather interesting events worth reporting!

::thanksgiving 2011::

We were lucky enough to have time to drive out to UT for Thanksgiving. We joined Kathy and Kari's family in Kathy's St George condo. This was the first time that we got to see the new condo--though it's been in the family for a while. It's very nice and airy and sunny and we approve!
We got to spend some time hanging out together, a little swimming, some yummy food and mostly just good family time.
It was short but worth it.
Thanks for hosting Kathy, and thanks to both you and Kari for working hard on the dinner Thanksgiving day while we finished up the drive out. It was pretty nice to arrive to a feast that was just about ready to go on the table.


(Kris says he is inserting green beans in his mouth to look like fangs for the picture, rather than eating them with his hands like it looks like he's doing. I'm not sure what to beleive!)

A bit more on the St George trip later. We're on our way home now and will get there sometime monday. Let all the crazy holiday times begin!

::while in UT::

When we were in UT for the funeral and the week after I hardly took a single picture. I was just too busy trying to survive--I got a bad cold and the baby woke up about 10 times per night every night we were there. But we had a really nice time, and it was so great to be there with everyone. I wouldn't have traded it for anything.
The last day we were there was conference sunday and it was a nice peaceful day. I pulled out my camera at the very end of the day and snapped a few shots of cousins and grandmas and aunts and uncles.

Max and cousin KC having some fun together.


New cousin Quinn.

It took a little coaxing to get a smile out of Parker.

Cousin Clayton.



We're just all so lucky to have each other.
And if you want to see pictures of MY side of the family go here. It was really nice to get to spend some time with them too, and also get to hug and chat with Laura, Murphy's fiance!!!!

::max's party part 1::

Kris and I got back from New Mexico on thursday, had a day to recover and then we had Max's birthday party on Saturday.
It was basically a Star Wars themed party.
Max was thrilled. He couldn't even wait until 4PM when everybody was supposed to come.

(yay!! yay!! birthday stuff!!)
I made him a banner--the drawings on either side are his renderings of R2D2 and R4 (or whoever the red R2D2 is.)


Max had fun playing with his cousin Jennifer. They're a good age to hang out together.

We had some fun present opening time (thanks everybody!!) and then we went outside to break the pinata!! What's a birthday without a pinata, right?
And it's even a star, which sort of fits the "theme".
We started out hitting it with a croquet mallet.


Some of the little guys weren't entirely sure if it was ok to raise the mallet above their knees, but Derek was cool with it.

Somebody decided that the mallet wasn't good enough, so we moved to the nerf bat.

Really, these store bought pinatas are basically indestructible. I remember a few homemade ones that were pretty tough to break too though.
Anyway.


Big strong Parker managed to knock the pinata off it's little hanger. So Kris pierced it with his garden rake and the show went on.

THEN, that same somebody decided we weren't making enough progress STILL, and so went and found a crowbar. (A crowbar!??! Yes, that's what I said, kids trying to hit a pinata with a crowbar, yikes.)

Luckily it didn't take very long to demolish the thing with the crowbar.
And out came the goodies.

Robots and treats.


Then we went in for some singing and some cake. It's always nice to feel like the star when everybody sings to you. Well, except for me, I'm always embarrassed. I don't think Max has that problem though.

(good singing Charlotte!!!)

(I love all the little helpers watching so closely at Max's side)

Hooray!!!
Then we moved on to the next and last activity......to come later......

::today--a year ago::

Last year on this day we were in Utah, and we had a little party up American Fork canyon with the Hendricks side of the fam.

I miss the mountains, and the canyons, and the fam. Both sides of it.

I also miss the skin crackingly dry air, and the chilly high desert nights. Oh yeah, and the fam.

I wish we got to spend a whole month visiting, like we did last summer. That was great.
Last summer was really crazy, now that I think about it. We traveled so much, and so much happened all at once.


It's always exciting when these guys get together:

They're much bigger now, but just as silly.

I'm thinking we might need to enter them into some sort of synchronized eating competition, what do you think?





Is there such a thing as synchronized eating? If not, there certainly should be.

So, I wish we were getting together tonight for a big Hendricks/Randle family weinie** roast up the canyon. It would make me happy.


**weinie is easterner speak for hotdog. Just in case anybody was confused. It confuses me. Why would anyone want to use the word weinie when there are other, less gross names for a thing?

::worthwhile::

Tell me if you think the following was worth going outside on the freezing cold sidewalk in my socks, having to leap over snow piles.


I think so. Boy the mountains here are gorgeous.

::nifties::

So I don't know if everybody feels this way but to me, growing up, my grandparents houses were pretty magical places. Like my grandparents in LA had a pool, which was awesome. And that gumball machine I mentioned earlier. And a cookie jar that was always full. And special cereal just for us to eat in the morning. And an orange grove in the yard! It was all pretty special and exciting.

I didn't get a chance to spend too much time at my mom's parents house, but I remember cool things there too, like my grandad's woodshop, and their cool decorations. Their fuzzy wallpaper in the entry hall was so interesting, and I remember them having a closet full of kid's books, although my mom claims that never existed. I also read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory there for the first time. Good associations.

Grandparent's houses are cool places no matter what. They're just fun. But my mom has gone to a lot of trouble to find a bunch of cool exciting things to make her house a super magical grandmother house. Such as this awesome chinese checkers set with big gorgeous marbles.

My mom and max played with this a whole bunch. Max loved it.
And I have to show you a color picture of this set, it's too cool!

Another thing, one that Max is completely in love with now, is this cup.

There's a puppy in it. He's hidden if you're drinking milk, and slowly shows his face as the milk is slurped up. Or he just sticks his head out of the water the whole time you're drinking it. "Dog water!" Max says in delight.

He's been drinking and drinking out of it which is so cute.

The last thing I'll show you now (though there are lots more fun toys and such) is this cool marble tower thing. You put marbles up at the top and give the first one a push.

Then as the first marble goes down the little track it gets dumped into buckets which dump it down to the next level. Kind of hard to explain. But the 2nd marble waits somehow until the 1st is far enough down. It's really cool. The little marbles are very civilized and take turns!

Max calls it a marble party. It's really a neat thing.

I think Max is going to have very special memories of his grandparents' houses out here in Utah. He already has particular things he loves and remembers about each house. It's really fun for me to see.  He's a lucky boy.