::speaking of::

Speaking of cozy fires, (we were speaking of those at some point, right?) weren't you wondering where we got all that wood to burn??

Well, I hope you were wondering, because I'm going to tell you.
Early this week Kris bet up with a friend from the ward who works for the Forest Service. He's like a genuine mountain man (well, sort of), and he's awesome. He had a permit to cute firewood--which are evidently very affordable--and he took Kris out into the middle of nowhere to find a great big deadwood fallen tree that he had run across at some point. I guess it was crazy getting there--no roads or anything of course.
They chopped it up with Gilbert's chainsaw and axe and then filled the back of the Land Rover with chunks of (extremely aromatic) wood.


No--that chainsaw doesn't look very safe or secure--we'll assume they moved that after the picture and before driving home, right? They both made it home with heads intact anyway, that's the important part.

Kris was pretty proud of his load of wood.
And rightly so, it's quite impressive.

Sultan was less impressed and more distressed--the wood was in his spot. What's a dog to do?

The wood smells amazing and it's been really fun to have cozy fires on cold days. And I think the cutting of the wood satisfied a need for adventure in my husband--well a bit of that need anyway. Feeling like a real mountain man is pretty awesome.

::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.

.::The Things Grandpas do for their Boys Pt 1::.

I came home from helping Kris at school one day last week and here was the sight I saw:

Mr ultra cool Grandpa had set up a big pad made up of his blankets and pillows on the rug, and Max was leaping onto it from the ottoman. He was having an absolute blast.
He would do a countdown:

(note the cool new way to do three, he figured that one out himself.)


this takes a LOT of concentration.


ZERO! Alright, GO!

Woo hoo!



I think part of what added to the extreme enjoyment of this was that in the past jumping off the ottoman in any form has been outlawed. So getting to do it was more than a little bit thrilling I'm sure!

I love this picture. Sultan was coming over to sit on me since I was down on the floor.

Looks like fun, huh? What a fun Grandpa to come up with something like this. I'm not sure he would've ever let us do it when we were kids, but I guess that's what it means to be a grandpa. You get to indulge the little ones.
And who wouldn't want to let this:

Do this?

More grandpa indulgences and activities to come later.

.:.:In Dire Need:.:.

This is my cute little friend Max.

He's pretty cute, isn't he?

Does he look like he's in dire need of anything in particular to you?

He insists that he doesn't need a haircut, and tells me that he really really likes having hair in his eyes. In fact, when I brush it off his face he quickly brushes it back into his eyes.
For some reason his long hair makes him feel cool. Wow, whose kid is he? Could he be related to Kris Hendricks who is always trying to grow his hair out?

I'm just afraid he's going to trip on something, or run into the wall. Hah, not like he doesn't do all that already!

We do have a haircut scheduled for him tonight. We'll see how it goes. He's only recently allowed us to convince him that no, haircuts don't actually hurt.
We would've had him in a lot sooner, but the girl who cuts our hair was supposed to come into the dental school so Kris could do some work on her. She stood him up twice and after that we had a hard time wanting to go and pay her to cut our hair. And I don't like to take Max to places like Great Clips because they cut off his cute side curls.
So we just decided to be brave and go back to the girl. I'm sure it'll be fine. Max, however, isn't so sure he's going to be fine without his long hair.