::best::

What could be better than coming home from a trip and seeing someone you love standing there holding this and smiling:

Nothing. Nothing could be better.

::i can't think of a title::

Well, you might've thought I quit blogging completely, but I haven't!
We're back from our long complicated UT trip. It was really fun. I was ready to come home, but once we got here I was ready to go right back. It's really hot and humid here right now, and our house is really uncomfortable. We don't have central air--just a little window unit that doesn't do much. We're using it in the kitchen so we don't all die of heat exhaustion when we cook.
It's been too hot and uncomfortable for me to even use the computer much. I have a lot of fun photos to post from the trip, so hopefully it'll cool down a little here and I can do some work!

I officially quit my loan processing job last week. I haven't been doing much of anything the last few months anyway, so really it wasn't any loss to quit. It feels good though, to not have it hanging over my head all the time like it has been for the last 5 or 6 years. The welcome end of an era!

We went to the beach this weekend for the first time all summer. This has been such a weird summer for weather--cold for months, super rainy, really foggy and muggy. Anyway, finally it's hot enough for the beach, but we went down there saturday morning and the beach was totally foggy and cold, while our house was so hot we couldn't even move. So crazy!

The best news of all since we got back is this. Sultan got groomed. At the end of his stay at the kennel (which he seems to realy like, by the way) we had them wash and groom him--grooming for him was long overdue. It's really expensive because of how big and hairy he is.
He looked so awesome when Kris picked him up--all sleek and slim and clean. Like a different dog almost!



I love the silly little kerchief they put on him.

Getting back into real life after a long trip is tough--for Max as well as for me--we've had a lot of melt downs. But we're almost all unpacked, almost all the laundry is done (though not quite put away) and I've almost remembered how to cook. We're getting there.
Now it's off to the gym. Later.

::scenes from laaaaaava pt 1::

::big city day trip::

Kris had a work event yesterday in New York city. We talked about it and decided it was cheaper for him to drive and take the train, and that way he could take Max and I along.
We left in the morning and got there around noon. Kris went to his work thing and Max and I hopped on the subway to head uptown to the American Museum of Natural History. Wow is that a BIG place. We shared an incredibly overpriced yucky lunch in the cafeteria ($17 for sandwich, drink, cookie) and then headed up to see what we could find. There was way more stuff there than we could ever see in a day.
We started with the North American mammals hall. Taxidermy heaven, let me tell you! It was cool though, Max liked looking at the animals.

Though of course you wouldn't know he's enjoying himself from his face. That's not the face I'd be making if I was standing in front of an insane moose fight, that's for sure.

This facial expression is slightly more appropriate, though not much. Man those bears were huge. That one standing up had to be twice my height.

Seems being stalked by bears and being swallowed by enormous crustaceans looks about the same.
The ocean stuff was really cool. I'm not sure how many of the animals were models vs taxidermy jobs, but they all looked cool. And there was an immense model of a blue whale hanging from the ceiling. I was impressed.



This picture is of a really tall wall where they had animals divided up by kingdom, species, phylum, etc. It was really neat. I could've looked at it forever, but of course with Max around we only look at things for a maximum of about 3 seconds before moving on.
Unless it's some computerized thing of course--then we stay there for hours. Boring.

I don't think I've ever seen anybody using those interactive computery things besides little kids. Do you think anybody's ever told the museum people that?
Mr Webb's dream:


After the ocean I took Max up to the top floor to see the dino bones. I was hoping I might get cell reception up there, since the place is way too immense to have any downstairs. It barely worked. It was a good thing it did though, because Kris got done early.
We explored some dinos. I think Max is still a little scared of them though. He wasn't that interested in looking very long.
And I don't blame him. I think they're pretty frightening myself sometimes.

Like that claw, YIKES.


I don't know how many peoples lovely posed pictures max spoiled by walking right in front of them as they pressed their shutters, but I know it's more than one, and I'm guessing not less than 10. Oh well. Do you really need a cheesy posed photo of yourself in front of EVERY single exhibit in the museum?

No way. We don't do cheesy posed photos around here. Never.

Luckily Kris finished up right about the time that I got tired and Max started running away from me around exhibits, giggling and dodging. Since I don't think that's fun we headed out back down to the subway.
On the way out we saw one of Rachel R.'s friends.

Ewwwww. He sends his love. I told him you didn't want to see him anytime soon.

Oh, I almost forgot to tell the best part. We took a bathroom break on the way out, and of course since my little boy is not the type to actually stay where I ask him to, he has to come in the stall with me. That's bad enough, but he's always messing around with the door when I'm in there. So of course, as I'm using the facilities the door swings wide open. There are tons of women and children coming in and out and everyone sees me. Even worse, he doesn't even close the door himself. I have to stand up and close it.
Awesome, right?

After I blocked that experience out of my mind very carefully we got back on the subway and went to meet Kris at Grimaldi's pizza, under the Brooklyn bridge. And boy was it good. We didn't even have to wait in line because it was 4:30 PM on thursday!

The crusts are thin, the cheese and tomato sauce is super fresh and the basil is whole. Mmmmm.

Can you see it steaming? Everybody should get a piece of this stuff. It changes your whole definition of the word pizza.
Anytime anybody wants to go we'll meet you there.

Then we got on the road and took the long drive home--oh, but not before Max decided he needed to poop and took up the Grimaldi's bathroom for about 20 minutes.
The joys of a five year old in the big city.....

::plenty::

We're missing Kris right now. He's in California for the California Society of Pediatric Dentistry (CSPD) meeting. Whew that's a mouthful.
We're hoping he might meet some helpful people out there so we'll have a good place to end up in a year.
Anyway, to fill the emptiness of a missing daddy we went to the library. Max and I have been enjoying the library lately. He finally realized we could get fun books there that he might actually like.

Looks kind of like a book rainbow, doesn't it?
We came home with over 20 tomes. They're all good ones too. I had to read 6 stories to him at bedtime, and that was on top of the 4 or 5 I'd already read when we got home from the library.

I'm really glad he's enjoying books, and the library. Both those things have been very important to me in my life and very beneficial too. In fact I don't know what I'd do without the library right now. I'd have a very costly habit I guess.

It was so funny, I had requested a book I knew he'd want, so it was waiting for us at the check out desk. When he saw what it was he was so excited that he plopped right down there and started reading it. Cute? Yes.

About 90% of the books are about dogs too. It's pretty funny.

Anyway, if you see Kris tell him to come home soon? It's a bummer he has to miss conference weekend. It's a bummer he has to be gone at all, we miss him!

::cali::

We finally have internet for just a few minutes, it's been hard to come by so far on our jaunt through California.
So here are a fun photos of the natural beauty we've been enjoying while driving through northern CA. It's beautiful, and the air is so fresh. It smells great.
Enjoy!

The beginning of the mountains north west of Sacramento. I bet with leaves on the trees they're even prettier.

Clear Lake. It was gorgeous.



The redwoods.

All the rain was worth it for this beautiful rainbow.

Humbolt Bay, way up north in Eureka.

We're having fun--we'll be heading south down the coast tomorrow.

::Lava, we're gonna do it all day::

I'll explain the title of this post a little later.
While we were in St. George we decided to take a drive out to Flagstaff Arizona to see what it was like. We'd heard that it has four seasons, which we like and was high up in the mountains, and we like mountains. And since we're only a short two years away from actually deciding where we want to be, we are trying to check out some of the places in the west we might be interested in.

So anyway, we headed out for an overnight visit to Flagstaff. It was a very interesting drive. First we went through Zion's, which of course is incredible looking.

I love how even the road is red.

Then we drove out through the Navajo reservation and saw some more really amazing landscape. The desert red rocks and mesas and stuff are so striking. Its hard to take pictures of some of that stuff--it's almost too much for a camera to take in.

We got to our hotel in Flagstaff and then decided we'd like to go on a hike. There's a famous old volcano crater just outside the city, so we went over there.
I wore the wrong shoes.

But I was tough, so I survived. Don't look too close at my dorky toes please.
It wasn't a tough hike, but it was very cool looking out there.
There were piles of the old lava rock everywhere.

The crater itself was a very cool color--which is probably why they call it "sunset crater"

Max wore himself out running way ahead of us, and finally just had to be carried most of the way.

Little did we know that he had the stomach flu and would wake up the next morning and throw up all day. Good thing we didn't know.



We couldn't really figure out what his deal was. Oh well.

He made up a song while he was riding on Kris's shoulders that went "LaVA, we're gonna DO it ALL DAY" and sang it over and over and over, very loudly the whole way. It was funny.

After the hike. All that shoulder riding must've been very dehydrating.

After our hike we went and had dinner (good yummy mexican food) and went to bed, planning to take a good look at the city in the morning. Then as you already know, Max decided to throw up. All morning. When he finally stopped throwing up for more than about 15 minutes we quickly threw him in the car and hurried away. We drove through the city a little bit, but after he threw up in the car we decided it was time to head back. So I don't even have any good pictures of Flagstaff. We liked it though. It was small and kind of interesting with lots of pretty trees. I do have a tree picture.

Just imagine a city where most of the buildings are hidden behind trees like this. That's the jist of Flagstaff. Or at least that's our impression after spending about 12 hours there.

We had to skip the grand canyon on the way back, but we made it to St. George without any more big problems, luckily.

Doesn't it seem like little kids always get sick on trips? And always at such inconvenient times? Remember what happened to me at Disney World?!?......Blah

::A Jaunt::

I haven't been able to post for the last few days because my friend Carie and I were taking a little vacation in Minnesota!
Here's a fun picture of Carie for you.

Carie is great. Its so nice to have a friend that's close that I have so much fun hanging out with--it's been a long time. And no Carie, I'm not just saying that because I know you read this thing.
We took a quick 3 day jaunt up there because our husbands wanted us to go and have fun! Isn't that nice of them? Well, it was something like that anyway. We went up there with the intention of going to Ikea, a place that we both enjoy, and the trip didn't disappoint!
We were in Minneapolis, and the Ikea was right by the Mall of America. Heard of that place? It's supposedly the largest mall in the US. And boy is it ever huge. It has an amusement park in the middle and basically any (mall) store you can think of. We started out there and had dinner. What's better to eat at the mall than mall food? We had orange chicken from Panda Express (or Stomachache Express as Carie likes to call it.) I have to mention this because I took such a great picture of the food:

and yeah, if it looks tasty to you that's because it was! Yum. It was great until later when our stomachs were sorry we'd eaten it.

Anyway, we shopped at the mall on the first day and the third day (spending plenty of time trying on clothes of course), and then the 2nd day we spend the entire day shopping at Ikea, going through all the things we wanted carefully and slowly. Since there was nobody to rush us it was great! So great in fact that we got there at like 10 in the morning and didn't leave the place until 5. Amazing, huh? We got a lot done though, and no, neither of us spent our life savings--somehow. The picture you see is of a bed I'm hoping to maybe get later on, for our new house, maybe.
We had lunch there and I got to eat the swedish meatballs. They were really good. Oh, to have an Ikea close. Poor Kansas City, it might never happen.

It was a really fun trip. It's the first time I've gotten away by myself in forever, maybe ever actually, and I think it was the same for Carie. We're lucky to have husbands that are so good with our kids, that don't think twice about stepping up and taking care of things!
Max did pretty well while I was gone, but was actually much more upset than when Kris and I went to Providence. He didn't seem to care when we were gone together but he did break down a couple of times this week. He was happy to see me when I got home (and I was happy to see him and Kris--it's nice to be gone, but always so great to come home.)

Now I'm off to do more school work. I have a big project due monday and then hopefully some of the school pressure will be lessened. I have more posts on the way about Grandpas and cute little boys. Stay tuned!