::bryan wrap-up::

A couple of things I didn't get to post.
10,000 little boys:

(There are six boys in this picture--you can hardly notice Clayton on the far right for some reason, and Quin is hiding in his car seat. But they're there for sure!)
This was the morning they left. Max didn't want them to go. He was pretty bummed for the rest of the day.

Best park ever:

(I stole this picture from Kari.)
Can you believe the size of this slide? Our friends in the ward told us there was a two-storey slide park in town that their kids would beg to go to--we thought they were exaggerating. But no. It's HUGE.
The boys loved it. Too bad it was super windy (springs tend to be out here.) It was so windy that the babies couldn't catch their breath. So we'll have to hit the park again next visit. Twenty minutes probably wasn't satisfying enough for the dudes.

To wrap it up, we had a great time. We're so glad that Kari & her family came even though they all ended up sick with pink eye and colds a couple of days after they got home--they were forewarned though, so it was a known risk. Thanks for driving all the way out and risking the dreaded pink eye guys! Come back soon!

::::

The other day Max and I took our friends Linda and Natalie over to our little playground by the (bay) beach and had a little photo shoot.
I thought I'd post a couple of the pictures here for people to enjoy because they just turned out so cute. But honestly I think it would be hard for them not to have turned out well, with such cute subjects.


Linda's husband is a 1st year resident in Kris's program, so they've still got a year to go. It's been fun getting to know them and hanging out this year.
Natalie is just a doll.

She and Max get along so well. There's a good 3 year age gap there, but it really doesn't matter because they're both so silly and so easy to get along with (generally, with Max) they spend the whole time giggling and being silly.
Like this:

No, he didn't hit her with the stick. I'm not sure what exactly the stick was doing--I think it was just a cool find. But they did tickle each other for a good while there.

And the silly boy alone:


We'll miss getting to hang out with you, Roberts! Good luck with everything!!!

::dinner::

We're trying to enjoy our last couple of weeks here. Enjoying moving preparations is never easy though, really.

The other day when Kris got home we decided to pick up a sandwich to eat in a local park area that's super pretty.
We're trying to soak in all the green, because I'm sure I'll miss it later. (But I'm not going to miss the humidity, I promise.)


We got a sandwich from Jersey Mike's. It's the local attempt at a sub shop. It's better than 99% of the sandwich places around. It's still a sad substitute for Planet Sub, or Sensuous sandwiches back in Provo. (Mmmm, now I'm getting hungry.)
But they do have big thin cut slices of dill pickle on the sandwich that are really tasty.


Kris was just glad to be done with another one of his (rather miserable) 11 hour work days.


Max was glad to be outside. And eating doritos.

But he was bummed because we said we were going to a park. But it wasn't exactly what he was hoping for in a park. He was looking for slides and fireman poles and that kind of thing. So in lieu of all that he decided to climb on the car and drive us nuts. And drive poor Sultan nuts who was stuck inside the car because we forgot his leash.

Can you see our new luggage carrier on top of the car? We're gearing up for the cross country haul!

Anyway, it was a nice evening outing. We're trying to have some fun and relaxation together in the midst of the chaos that is moving.

So far so good.

::frigid outing pt 1::

On Saturday we went out to have some fun with Chad Melissa and cute little Grant. We grabbed some lunch and then headed out to Jamestown, RI.
There was a park out there with a little hike we wanted to check out. It was freezing freezing.

There were all these little ponds or puddles or something in the grass that were all frozen solid. Well, not as solid as Kris thought. He got out into the middle of the big one (you can see him behind Max in the above photo) and suddenly we all heard this big CRACK. He got off there pretty fast.

Max thought the ice was pretty fun, of course. It was tricky to keep him from going out too far. Somehow he didn't fall on his bum. I'm not sure how we kept that from happening!



It was fun to walk around the edges of the icey spots and crack all the ice.
Sultan was just glad to get out and eat some yummy snow.

And Grant was cool with keeping an eye on everybody from his throne.




There was this old fort in the park. It was really big and really kind of gross and creepy. We looked it up after we got home. Turns out it was a fort used in world wars one and two for monitoring sea traffic in and out of the bay. It's been turned over to the parks and rec dept of the city now, and basically it looks like it's just a big hang out for teenage weirdos. There was nobody in it when we were there though. It was way too cold for just hanging out.
It was cool looking.

Lots of interesting graffiti--luckily most of it was illegible. You know, there comes a point when there's so much graffiti somewhere that it seems organic, like it grew there or something. Like some of the buildings in NYC that you see from up on the subway. Anyway, this place was like that.







After messing around there for a while we went along the path.

The path took us up on top of the thing. I was nervous about Max the entire time of course. I could just see him falling off the cliff you can see behind Melissa and I.

But of course "I WON'T! I'm just following Sultan!" Yeah, good old Sultan won't lead him wrong! (hah!)

But he didn't fall off anything. Luckily. Thanks to lots of yelling from me. At least I like to think the yelling does some good.

Yes, you can see it in his face. He just likes me to yell so he can pretend he doesn't hear it. Little stinker thinks somebody will always be there to catch him if he falls. I guess that's good, right?

And after we got too cold up there and headed back down towards the car he did fall. I guess. He was running ahead and I think he ate it.

And somehow ended up with a handful of big burrs. He's amazing. I don't know how he does it.
After that we tried to take some pictures of our breath, but though it was FREEZING we couldn't see our breath. Explain that one to me...

and then we--oh wait--you're going to have to just stick around for part 2.

.::Cute little Kitty::.

OK I'm back! I've had a lot of school stuff going on that's been keeping me from doing much fun blogging, but something happened a few weeks ago that I've been meaning to post here, so here you go.
There was a nice warmish day a few weeks ago--(maybe a month or two ago, I don't know.) It was so nice we all went on a walk together to combat the cabin fever.. The three of us people and our humongous hairy monster of a Sultan dog.

See? He's big.
So we were walking along the path at the park, and a lady with a really tiny little wimpy dog came walking from the other direction. She got up next to us and Max said,
"Oh look! It's a cat!" He was very delighted to see a cat being walked in the park on a leash.

It was funny to have to explain to him that it was actually a dog. He was slightly confused. And how could he not be, with the manliness of Sultan being his definition of DOG?

See, he's manly and huge. Look out all you cats on leashes, we're coming to get you.

As soon as everyone gets untangled, that is...